Mario & Luigi: A true nightmare
by Dreaming Creator
Summary: A very special event brings many guests to Pi'illo Island, including Mario and Luigi. Just as the event is about to take place, they meet two enemies they had to defeat a few months ago. Now it is up to the plumbers, Starlow and Dreambert to stop this threat yet again... The sequel to "Mario & Luigi, Four for everyone".
1. Preparations

**Hmm…I wonder how the front is doing… *picks up phone and calls OC Nico* Hey, it´s me. How are the reviews doing?**

 **OC Nico: *looks through binoculars from a tower towards the FanFiction field* I can only see positive reviews. From Madz, GamehunterMC, Magifoofa and a guest. They´re also waiting for the sequel, and so am I.**

 **Alright, thanks. *ends the call and looks at you* So, you liked the first part of this little series…or the second one, if you consider "The Star Sprite that became happy" being the prequel. Thanks, guys. And now you want the sequel to the sequel, huh? Fine, I was bored anyways.**

 ***boots up Computer and opens a new document* Normally I´d put important information here, but that´ll be in the story. Let´s see how this one turns out. I have a few neat ideas in mind, and as I know myself, new ideas will come up while writing this one. Without further ado… *starts writing***

 **Oh, right. You should read "Robot´s Quest" in order to understand what happened to Nicbot.**

 **Enjoy "Mario and Luigi: A true nightmare"!**

* * *

He had been recovering for a very long time now, but it was worth it. If he wanted to fight heroes of THAT caliber, he´d need all of his power. And it wouldn´t take much longer for him to reach his full potential again. He would have to start from the beginning again, but he had a plan, as always. The research they had done for him was really helpful, and his counterpart didn´t notice anything.

It was easy for him to pretend being weak. Things can hide very easily in the dark, and he was exactly that, meaning that he hid his powers inside himself, the darkness of this human. When he would have recovered, he´d be able to partially control this body again. If HE didn´t want him to use his powers, he would have to give up control over the body´s movement. And that was the only thing he needed.

He already had a fix date on which he was going to take action. The day of the big event, which would take place in the castle of this island. And if everyone was there, he could satisfy the biggest desire he had: revenge. The dark soul laughed, careful not to alarm the light part of Nico. Dark Nico was confident: this time, the four heroes wouldn´t be able to stop him. And on top of that, he would ruin the biggest event in the lives of the two lovers. He was going to be their personal nightmare, one that wouldn´t go away. Ever.

* * *

 **Two weeks before the event.**

Nico was sitting in his new office. Well, technically it still was his old room, but he simply had added a bit of furniture and his computer, so he could work in there. It had been nine months since Dark Nico´s defeat, and he was part of the Management Team of Pi'illo Island now. They currently had the most important task ever: to prepare a wedding. A certain Star Sprite and the Pi'illo Prince had decided to take this step, and it was up to them to ensure the wellbeing of literally everyone.

Nico was busy writing the invitations, and he made sure to write every single one of them himself. They couldn't allow themselves to make a mistake here, and he had the best writing skill of everyone in the team. The rest of the team was planning the wedding itself. The location, the guest list, food, drinks and so on. Dreambert had announced this a month ago, and they only had two weeks left. He was glad that they trusted him that much, but he still had to think back to his evil days every now and then.

Inside of him, Dark Nico was nearly at full strength again. As soon as he had heard about the wedding, he knew when to strike again. Exactly on that day. Of course not during the wedding, because there would be too much light power against him, as well as the Mario Bros.. But a few hours before it, so he would cancel the wedding. Nobody would expect anything, giving him enough time to carry out his plan.

Nico finished writing the invitations for today. He then pulled out a book about the Dream Stone and the Dark Stone. He couldn´t explain why, but the Dark Stone fascinated him, as well as the legend of a way more powerful stone. He shivered at the thought of that much power. If that landed in the wrong hands, it could be devastating, just like how Bowser and Antasma had used the Dream Stone…

* * *

 **One week before the wedding.**

In an abandoned cave in the Beanbean Kingdom, a robot finished his self-repairing. It had been six additional months since he broke out of the laboratory, six months he had used to fully repair himself. But now he was done, which meant that he could finally start the search. The first part was gathering information. If his master still was on Pi'illo Island, it would take him a few days to get there. And maybe he would have to help his true master to gain control over his vessel again.

Nicbot stepped out of the cave. It was night now, perfect for moving around unnoticed. His best bet was the newspapers in Mushroom Kingdom, they should have archived the newspapers from up to one year ago. If he broke in there, he could find valuable information. The robot activated his thrusters and started flying. He moved into the direction of Mushroom Kingdom, where he hoped to find something about Nico´s current state.

* * *

The first guests started to arrive, and Nico and his team were working non-stop. Each person had to get a hotel room or a room in the castle, and some of them had preferences, like wanting a room with exactly two windows, a double digit number or something else. He was glad when he could finally rest in the evening. The human decided to take a walk outside of the castle, so he could recover from all the work they had done so far.

"We got this. We just need to take care of the guests, everything else is prepared," he thought, and visited Mushrise Park. Every location on the island (even Dozing Sands) had been tidied up, while Somnom Woods was a prohibited area for guests. They didn´t want anyone to break anything there, as it was a really dangerous place for people without experience. Two entities were confident that the day of the wedding would be great, but for different reasons: Dark Nico wanted to take revenge on four heroes, and Nico hoped for two of them to be happy and together for all of time.

* * *

 **Two days before the wedding.**

Nicbot was closing in on Pi'illo Island. After he had found out that his master turned good now, or rather lost control over his body, he immediately started his journey to the island. He had also read about the wedding, so he flew just above the water to not get spotted by any blimps. But how should he be able to help his master without alarming everyone immediately? Perhaps he should wait a bit, and see if Dark Nico took action on his own. Nine months should have been enough for him to grow to full power again.

The island was getting closer, and he decided to hide on Mount Pajamaja for now, as the peak wasn´t visited by many people. He flew a big curve around the island to ensure that he wouldn´t get spotted by anyone in Wakeport or Pi'illo Blimport, and then made his way to the top of the mountain. The robot activated his scanners and looked for any nearby lifeforms, but found nothing. This should be enough to keep him hidden for a few days.

* * *

Most of the guests had arrived by now, and the citizens from Mushroom Kingdom just came here. Nico usually sent Pi'illos out to greet new guests, but he wanted to welcome these guests himself. He waited at the blimport, and walked up to the Zeeppelin as soon as it landed. Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach were the first to hop off the blimp, and he quickly reached them.

"It has been so long! Greetings, and welcome to Pi'illo Island," he chanted and shook their hands.

"It´s great to see you being well as well, Nico," the princess replied.

"I hope you had a nice trip. And even if not, this event here sure will be worth all the struggles you may have had," Nico continued.

"No, we were fine, just like the last time," Mario assured him.

"Nice to hear that. What has been going on in the kingdom since I left it?" Nico continued, curious. Kamek, who was a special guest, floated towards them on his broom. He had been invited because he was the one who made it possible to defeat Dark Nico.

"Nico, long time no see. Thank you for inviting me, and it was a rather calm year for us, if you exclude your, uh…incident," the Magikoopa greeted him.

"Sure thing, Kamek. And…yeah, I know. I´m glad that something like that hasn´t happened again," the human replied.

They kept talking while he led everyone to Pi'illo Castle, where they got their own rooms. The wedding was only two days away, and all parties were ready for it. In the evening, Starlow and Dreambert, the prior one being nervous, welcomed all the guests in the dinner of the castle.

The couple was ready for being married to each other. The guests, as well as Nico and the Pi'illos, couldn´t wait for them to enter a new stage in their life. And Dark Nico and Nicbot were ready to pursue their goals: to annihilate the heroes. What Dark Nico didn´t know was that his robot had landed on Mount Pajamaja and waited for the right time to look after his master.

But still: everyone was prepared for the day of the marriage.

* * *

 **So after nine long months, it looks like Dark Nico and Nicbot are trying their luck again. Looks like we can expect a highly unusual wedding day. Just…what will Dark Nico do this time to realize his dreams? Or his nightmares…?**

 **As always: Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	2. Double Trouble

**To the guest who requested a story (FiftyShadesLuigi): I am very sorry, but I don´t feel like writing that story. The plot doesn´t sound too bad, but I don´t think that I am able to put that together. Still, I hope that you either find another author who is willing to write it, or take a request from my side. That would be to try and write the story yourself. The thing is that you will like the story the most if you write it, because others won´t be able to write it exactly like you want it to be. Good luck, I´m sure that the story will be uploaded by someone at some point, maybe even you. If you want to ask: I might have accidently removed your request from the site, but I still have the mail, just in case if I change my mind.**

 **To everyone else: you may send me requests, either through review as a guest or via PM as a logged in user. Please note that I am the one who decides about writing a story, but if your idea sounds good enough, I´ll try and write that.**

 **If you want to know about the changed interior of Pi'illo Castle, read my first story, "The Star Sprite that became happy".**

 **That being said: enjoy!**

* * *

The day had come. It was currently 11 AM, and the wedding was planned to take place at 2 PM. Nico was checking through everything one last time. The place of the wedding would be inside the castle, and everything had been decorated festively there. Inside the diner, cakes and drinks were stacked up on tables and the counter. One big cake stood on a table in the middle of the room. It was a squared one, and had figures of Starlow and Dreambert standing on it.

The main hall, were the marriage would take place, had been filled with chairs and benches for everyone to be able to sit. They had even borrowed some floating clouds from Lakitus, just in case if there shouldn´t be enough chairs or if someone wanted to get a better view. Nico was proud of what they had managed to do. He was about to go and visit Starlow and Dreambert, when he suddenly felt…strange.

A sudden pain was inside his body, and he flinched from it. Luckily for Dark Nico, nobody was there with him. After a few seconds, Nico had changed his mind. He now wanted to go to Mount Pajamaja. He left the castle, but was stopped by two Pi'illo guards outside.

"Where are you going, Nico? You in particular should know that the wedding will be soon," one of them said as the human was about to pass them.

"I´m just taking a walk, don´t mind me…" he responded, his voice sounding a bit like he was in trance.

He prepared to knock them out, because one of the two guards was the one he needed for his plans. Light Nico, who was already alarmed because of his dark counterpart, put all of his effort into preventing Dark Nico from transferring his powers to the human once again. This forced him to give up control over the movement, though, which Dark Nico instantly used to his advantage.

Nico dashed towards the first one and punched him into unconsciousness, and before the second one could do anything, Nico knocked him out as well. The human then took the first one and carried him towards the mountain. The desired location was near ground level, so he didn´t have to actually climb up there while carrying a Pi'illo.

Nicbot still was near the peak of the mountain, scanning for any signs of his master. He thought about going down towards the castle and look for him there, but just then his scanner showed him something. It was Nico, undeniably, and he was slowly moving towards the mountain. That was the best opportunity he had, and so he activated his thrusters and started flying towards the human.

* * *

As soon as the second knocked out Pi'illo had been found, the castle has been locked down due to safety reasons. It was then discovered that the first Pi'illo was missing, as well as Nico. The Pi'illo reported that the human suddenly had attacked them, which led Mario, Luigi, Starlow and Dreambert to a conclusion: Dark Nico was back.

The worst part was that they didn´t even know where to look for him. Starlow then had an idea. She hurried through the castle and eventually found Dr. Toadley in the infirmary, where he took care of the Pi'illo guard. The Toad doctor had arrived one day ago.

"Dr. Toadley? It looks like Dark Nico is trying to take over again, but we don´t know where he is. Could you locate him? I don´t think that he has left the island," Starlow asked him.

"Did we all know that this day would come? Of course we did. Is it coincidence that he chose this day? I don´t think so. Can I find the area he is in? Indeed I can," the doctor responded, and took out his crystal ball. He gazed into it, and soon he saw Mt. Pajamaja inside of it.

"What do you see?" the Star Sprite asked impatiently, because they couldn´t give Dark Nico much time. And also because she was more than angry at the soul, because he had decided to cause chaos on her wedding day.

"Is he somewhere on the mountain? It looks like it. Is that the only thing I can do for you? Almost," he asked (and answered), and gave Starlow a 1-Up Mushroom.

"Thank you, doctor," Starlow replied grateful and left the room again.

Mario and the rest were in the Meeting Room, discussing on how to deal with Nico, or rather Dark Nico. Starlow entered the room, about to tell them about Nico´s current location.

"Toadley located him on Mt. Pajamaja, but we don´t know where exactly he is…" she told them.

"I have looked through his room, and found a book he has been reading lately. It is about the Dream Stone and Dark Stone, and it was opened on the page telling about the location where the Dark Stone had been kept. It was at the mountain, so I think he is where the Dark Stone has been," Dreambert responded.

"This guy is wasting no time, isn´t he? As soon as he comes back, he is already trying to carry out a new plan…" Mario said, annoyed by the Dark Soul.

Luigi remained silent, hoping to be forgotten by the others. If Dark Nico was trying to use the Dark Stone´s powers…Dreamy Bowser had already been a nightmare, ironically enough. What could an entity like Dark Nico do with such power?

"Fine. We have stopped him once, we can do it again," Dreambert said after they had finished talking about everything necessary. The wedding has been postponed until later this day, should they be able to stop him right away. The guests were going to stay at Pi'illo Castle, with the Pi'illos and possibly Kamek defending it.

They all ran out of the room, and nobody noticed Luigi staying in the room at first. As soon as they did, however, they sent Starlow back. The Star Sprite levitated the green plumber out of the room towards the group. He was clearly unhappy about this, but had no choice but to go with them. They ran towards the Supply Room, where they picked up a good amount of items. They only had a small amount of 1-Ups, but it had to be enough.

After collecting enough items, they headed towards the exit. Kamek was waiting for them there.

"I´ll stay here and try to protect everyone, should that guy decide to harm anyone here. And be careful, he can be dangerous no matter what resources he has," the Magikoopa told them.

"Thanks, Kamek. I knew we could count on you," Mario responded with a smile. Since the adventure nine months ago, they had been getting along quite well. Probably because Bowser hadn´t tried to kidnap Peach since then.

The heroes ran outside and towards Mt. Pajamaja, dragging Luigi along with them. They soon reached the mountain, and Dreambert started guiding them around. They walked into the area where Mario and Luigi had learned the Side Drill technique. Upon entering it, Dreambert pointed at the stone in the wall with a face on it.

"This is the entrance to the Dark Stone Cave. Just push the stone back, and it will reveal a small passage," he explained to them.

Mario walked up to it and did as he was told, and the stone started moving backwards. As Dreambert told them, a passage could be seen. It was really tight, forcing them to go through it one by one. The passage soon got wider, because every now and then, Pi'illars stood next to the wall, a purple fire on top of them lighting the way.

They reached the end of it, and found themselves in a cave. More Pi'illars with fires on top of them lightened the room, and in the center of the cave stood a purple pedestal. The Dark Stone wasn´t there, obviously, but Nico instead, together with the missing Pi'illo and…Nico again?

The Pi'illo, who was named John, lied on the pedestal, and purple bolts coming out of the ground around it were extracting something from him. They walked forward in order to stop this madness, and just then, the second Nico turned around. They stopped, surprised as they realised who they were against again. Nicbot started laughing.

"Well, well. What do we have here? Two plumbers, a Star Sprite and a Pi'illo. I bet you didn´t expect me to ever come back," the robot said.

Nico turned around as well, but he seemed to be rather shocked than evil. Inside of him, Starlow could feel Light Nico fighting to partially stay in control. The souls were evened out, with Light Nico controlling the magic and Dark Nico controlling the movement of Nico, which meant that Nico couldn´t use his magic against them. What they could see, however, was a new energy blade and a new ray gun hanging on his belt. Nicbot must have given him these when they had met each other.

"How did you even get here in the first place?" Starlow asked Nicbot.

"I flew here, how else? I´m glad that I´ve found my master, but he still doesn´t have control over his body. We were going to solve that, but now…" he told them, and shifted his left hand into his blade, while his right wrist revealed a ray gun, "…we have to stop you from interfering again."

Nico clearly didn´t want to fight them, but he had no control over his body. He activated his blade and aimed the ray gun at them. Mario, Starlow and Dreambert took battle stance, while Luigi stepped back a bit and took out some popcorn. All five of them stared at him, and Mario and Dreambert forced him into their battle formation. He sighed and took battle stance as well.

"Uh…right. Let´s go, master! We don´t need to hold out too long!" Nicbot exclaimed, and the two engaged the heroes.

Nico dashed forward and swung his blade at Mario, who took out his hammer and blocked the strike. The red plumber fought the human, who fired at the other guys every now and then. Nicbot in the meantime kept shooting at Luigi and Starlow, preventing both of them from performing any action other than dodging. Luigi managed to slowly close in on the robot with every dodge. As soon as he was close enough, he counterattacked him.

The foes were now both clashing with the brothers, who managed to stand their ground. But because they were moving around so much, Starlow and Dreambert couldn´t fire a beam at them without risking to hit their friends.

Nicbot eventually disengaged from Luigi by rolling backwards, and he then continuously fired at him. The green plumber was forced to evade the shots, which Nico used to rush towards him. Luigi didn´t see the threat coming, and he got hit by two quick strikes from Nico. He passed out, but all of this allowed Starlow and Dreambert to fire a love beam at Nicbot.

The robot couldn´t move, and Mario jumped towards him and brought his hammer down on the robot´s head. He repeated doing that, until Nico closed in on the couple and started spinning near them. They had to back off and stop their beam, allowing Nicbot to fight Mario. Nico then decided to take Mario out as well, so he ran towards him. As he was about to strike, Dreambert noticed the human and warned Mario by yelling "Nico is behind you!"

Nico and Nicbot both tried to strike him at the same time, and Mario managed to duck under the blades. The weapons clashed at each other, and Starlow used the time they were occupied to revive Luigi. Suddenly, the bolts striking John disappeared, and a purple sphere formed above him. Nico and Nicbot turned their heads in order to look at it, giving Mario time to retreat and regroup with his friends.

The enemies looked at each other, and Nicbot shifted his hands into his energy launchers. "Ready?" he asked his master, who nodded. The robot flew up and sent a barrage of missiles at them, which gave Nico time to run towards the sphere. He stretched his hands out at it, and the purple mass started to flow towards him. He absorbed it, until nothing of it was left.

The human faced the heroes, an evil grin on his face. He lifted his hands, and two dark blue spheres appeared around him. The heroes didn´t notice that, however, because they had to evade the projectiles fired by the robot. Nico threw the spheres at them, and Luigi and Dreambert got hit by them.

"Hahaha, guess who´s back now!" the human laughed. Both Luigi and Dreambert fell asleep, the latter one turning into his pillow form for some reason.

"Finally you´re back, master," Nicbot said and stopped firing at Starlow and Mario.

The robot flew towards the sleeping duo and picked them up. He placed Dreambert on the pedestal after Nico removed John from there, and then let Luigi use Dreambert as a pillow. To Mario and Starlow´s surprise, a portal opened above them. It wasn´t a normal Dream Portal, however, but a purple one instead.

"There is no stopping me now," Nico said and jumped through the portal.

"See you, losers!" Nicbot taunted them, and then followed his master.

Mario and Starlow noticed that they were at a Dreampoint…or rather a Nightmarepoint. The aura was quite similar, but the aura was a cold and purple one, just like a nightmare.

"Looks like this will get way more annoying and complicated than we thought…" Starlow said, worried about what could happen next.

* * *

 **Finally I am able to bring this one out. I had planned to do so on Sunday, but then many things got in my way, school is bothering me right now, and so on. At least I am able to launch this chapter right now, and hopefully get the next one done quicker.**

 **Nico and Nicbot still are the annoying and strong duo they had been before. And now, they´ve entered the Dream World (?) in order to carry out Dark Nico´s plan. And that is…what exactly? Well, I already know. What are Mario and Co. going to do against Dark Nico, who now seems to have control over Nico again? Questions, but no answers.**

 **Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	3. That's the Spirit!

**Alright, let´s see what Dark Nico has in store for us, shall we?**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Mario and Starlow looked at the portal above the sleeping Luigi, unsure what to do next.

"The problem right now is, that if you go in there, I´ll have to stay here and help you guys from here," Starlow said.

"But if you are out here, you won´t be able to use your love against them…" Mario continued her thought.

"We can´t stay here and do nothing either!" she reminded him.

"Perhaps…I can be of assistance…" a weak voice near the portal said.

They turned to face the one who had spoken to them, and found out that it was John, the Pi'illo who had been captured by Dark Nico. He must have woken up, despite being weakened by whatever happened to him.

"You´re up, John? What in the world happened here?" Starlow asked him.

"Nico…surprised us and knocked me out. The last…thing I can remember is waking up while they entered this cave. They…talked about 'absorbing the Nightmare Energy' and 'bringing him back'. I am known…for having the most nightmares of all Pi'illos…I think they have removed the Nightmare Energy from me, so they can use it for something…" the Pi'illo told them.

"Hm…Dark Nico seemed to be in control of Nico again as they entered the portal, so maybe he wanted this energy so he could power himself up," she assumed.

"John? You said that you could be of assistance. What exactly could you do?" Mario asked the Pi'illo.

"I could…take over Starlow´s position and help you, so she can join you in battle," he explained, and Starlow and Mario thought about it. It was the best option they had.

"I guess that could work. I haven´t ever been in the Dream World, I can´t believe that I haven´t asked Dreambert about that yet…" the Star Sprite replied.

They went up to the portal. They could feel the cold aura of it, which made them shiver a bit. They turned around and looked at John, who positioned himself next to Luigi. He gave them a small, confident smile. They nodded, and entered the portal.

Diving into the Dream World is one thing. You feel comforted, everything looks appealing (except for Dreamy Neo Bowser Castle) and the area around you (while in the portal at least) feels warm and welcoming in general.

Diving into the Nightmare World is completely different. Everything´s dark and cold, screaming can be heard while in the portal, and you instantly feel that you aren´t welcome here. Mario was surprised by this, but he focused on the task ahead. Starlow on the other hand was frightened the second they entered the portal, and she was more than happy when they finally dove out of the portal on the Nightmare World side.

The area looked quite similar to Dreamy Mt. Pajamaja, the difference being that everything was purple. They looked around, and Dreamy Luigi soon appeared next to Mario.

"There you are, big brother. But why is Starlow here as well?" he asked the two of them. Dreambert showed up next to them as well.

"John is taking over my job, so I can help you in battle," she explained.

"At least he is alright…" Dreambert said, relieved.

"Alright, we have no time to waste. We need to stop Dark Nico from whatever he is trying to do," Mario reminded them.

"Yes, you are right. Mario! Luigi! Starlow! Onward!" Dreambert exclaimed, and together they set off in order to find and stop Dark Nico and Nicbot.

They passed through the area, battling several enemies similar to those in the Dream World. They were also required to use Luiginary Cylinders in order to reach some higher areas. It took them about ten minutes to arrive in the same area the duo was in.

Nico was talking to a spirit. It looked almost like the Dream Stone Spirit, only with a different form and being purple. This had to be the Dark Stone Spirit, without a doubt. What hindered Mario and Co. from attacking him was a rather big gap in the ground, with a familiar robot standing on the other side of it.

"Ugh, great…it´s the Loser Quartet. Can´t you see that we´re in the middle of something?" Nicbot asked them when he saw them.

"Can´t you see that we are trying to stop you?" Starlow asked back.

"Really? All I can see is a bunch of clowns who are desperate because they can´t get anything done right. Well, you can look at it like that: you make me laugh, because of what total failures you are," he taunted them and started laughing.

Mario´s response was picking up a small rock from the ground and throwing it into the robot´s faceplate. He immediately stopped laughing, and they could have sworn that he looked angry, although he couldn´t show any facial expressions.

"So, you want to play, huh? I´m going to play with you!" he shouted at them and switched his hands into energy launchers. He flew up high and sent a barrage of missiles at them, which they managed to avoid.

"Triggering him wasn´t a good idea, you genius!" Dreambert shouted at Mario, as he avoided another projectile.

"Stop complaining, I think we can actually fight him back. All we need is a distraction," Dreamy Luigi said.

"I should be able to do that. I´m too fast for him to hit me with them," Starlow replied, as a missile narrowly flew above her star.

"Be careful, Starlow," Dreambert told her, worried about his up-until-now-girlfriend.

She zig-zagged towards the robot, who changed his focus on her. She managed to avoid the missiles and spun into his head, angering him even further. Mario and Dreamy Luigi prepared a Luiginary Typhoon, and as soon as they were ready, Starlow flew back towards them.

Nicbot still fired missiles at her, but Mario started the typhoon up, which flew into the direction of Nicbot. On the way there, the Luiginods collected the missiles flying towards them, and Nicbot realised what trouble this typhoon presented too late. He got sucked into it, and the missiles flying in it collided with the robot. In addition, the Luiginoids kept hammering him until he flew out of the spinning formation. He crash-landed on the ground, and saw himself forced to retreat for now.

He ran towards Nico, who was still talking to the Dark Stone Spirit. Starlow brought Mario and Dreamy Luigi to the other side of the gap, and they ran towards him as well. As they approached the trio, Nico turned around and faced them. They stopped and prepared for another battle.

"So, do we have a deal?" he asked as he looked at the spirit.

"Yes. You do your part, and I´ll do mine. Where do you want us to go first?" the Dark Stone Spirit replied.

"To the area that is as far away from here as possible," the human answered.

The spirit hovered backwards and closed its eyes. A purple light emitted from it, and Nico and Nicbot looked at the heroes again.

"It´ll take about five minutes," the spirit announced.

"Five minutes you need. Five minutes you´ll get," Nico said with a grin as he created four light blue spheres in his hands. "It has been so long since I fought at full strength. This should be fun."

He threw the spheres at them and ran forward, his robot by his side. They both activated their blade and engaged the Mario Bros., just like they did back in the Dark Stone Cave. This time, however, Nico could use his magic as well.

The heroes dodged the spheres and got ready to fight back. Mario and Dreamy Luigi fused together in order to increase Mario´s stats, but he could only fight one of them at the same time because of that. Nico and Mario started fighting with their melee weapons, while Nicbot ran towards Starlow and Dreambert. They fired a love beam at him, but his thrusters boosted him over it. He then closed in on them and tried to strike both of them down, but they hovered out of his reach every time.

Despite not being able to fire another love beam, they still fought back. Whenever it was possible, one of them spun into the robot´s head, causing a small amount of damage. It wasn´t as effective as a love beam, but with enough hits, which would take a while, the damage would eventually stack up. Nicbot tried to shoot them with his ray gun from his left hand as well, which they only narrowly avoided. They could only deal little to no damage, but it was better than nothing.

Mario on the other hand could keep up with Nico way better thanks to Dreamy Luigi´s boost, but the teenager was determined to bring them down. No matter how furious Mario fought, Nico always attacked with even more force. And of course, he wouldn´t ever play fair. After some time, he disengaged again, just so he could send lightning bolts and spheres against the plumber.

One time he did that, Mario used his hammer and knocked one projectile towards the robot, who didn´t see the threat. The sphere didn´t cause any damage to him, but it confused him long enough for Starlow and Dreambert to hit him with their love. Nico noticed this and went to interrupt the couple, giving Mario and Dreamy Luigi enough time to prepare another Luiginary Attack.

They built a Luiginary Hammer, and started walking towards the enemy duo. Nico threw spheres at Starlow and Dreambert, who had to stop the beam in order to dodge them, but they didn´t see Mario approaching. Nico turned around again so he could battle Mario again, just to get the giant hammer smacked into his face. He was sent flying into the direction of the gap, and he landed at the edge of it. He did slide a little further, however, and started to fall.

By some miracle, he managed to grab hold on the edge. He couldn´t do anything but to hang out for a bit. Nicbot started his thrusters up and flew towards the gap, relieved to see his master being in a bad situation, but at least unharmed. He flew below Nico and let him sit on his shoulders and then flew up again.

The heroes had forgotten about the Dark Stone Spirit, and it was done doing what it was supposed to do. A purple portal hovered above it, showing Nightmare Dozing Sands. Nicbot and Nico flew towards it and gathered around the portal. They faced the heroes, who were running towards them in order to cancel their escape.

"A great battle, but we got places to be. Take some advice from me: enjoy the last day of your life, although there won´t be a wedding. Because as soon as I am done with my plan, I can destroy you whenever I want. You got that? Fine," Nico told them, and jumped into the portal. The Dark Stone Spirit flew into it as well.

"You shouldn´t have ever bothered about anything, because it would have been so easy back then. Anyway, do as he said. See you, losers," Nicbot added and jumped into the portal as well. It closed as soon as he went through it.

"Dammit! They´ve escaped!" Starlow yelled.

"Why do these villains always have an escape route?" Dreamy Luigi complained as he separated himself from Mario again.

"He´s trying to bring the Dark Stone back…I think he actually will be successful," Dreambert said.

"So, who has a plan? We need to reach them, and we have no way in reaching the Nightmare World without looking for Nightmarepoints, and we had searched a very big area," Mario asked.

"There might be something. We need to go and see Eldream right now, I think he could know something helpful," Dreambert responded.

They returned to the portal, and Starlow and Mario went through it again. They landed in the Dark Stone Cave again. The portal closed, and Luigi woke up again. He stood up, and Dreambert turned into his normal form.

"So? I don´t see Nico. What happened?" John wanted to know.

"That´ll take some time to explain. We need to go to Pi'illo Castle and talk to Eldream. We´ll explain everything on the way there," Dreambert told him.

The five of them left the cave and made their way back towards Pi'illo Castle. If Eldream didn´t know how to reach Nico now, they couldn´t do anything to stop him. This whole mess could easily turn into a nightmare for everyone on this island, maybe even the entire world.

* * *

 **I´m really sorry that I´m taking so long, but I had to study because I´ve been writing a lot of exams lately. Well, I was also wasting my time playing games with some people (shouldn´t have started League of Legends, oh well). Anyway, I hope that I can start writing more from Friday on, because holiday kicks in again.**

 **Dark Nico tries to recreate the Dark Stone? He is out of reach for now? Well, things have looked better than this. But maybe Eldream knows something useful…**

 **Until then: Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**

 **EDIT: I do NOT own the idea of the Dark Stone Spirit, credit goes to MexiGirl56. It does make sense that there is a counterpart to the Dream Stone Spirit, and I am using that idea here because it fits, although her version is different. If the original authot wants this to be rewritten or taken down, I´ll do that.**


	4. The nightmare continues

Mario, Luigi, Starlow, Dreambert and John were going as fast as they could, knowing they had no time to waste. If they wanted to stop Dark Nico, they would have to figure out a way to enter the Nightmare World. And that was why they had to find Eldream, because he sure would know a way to reach Nico. The five of them finally reached Pi'illo Castle, much to Kamek´s surprise.

"Back already? What happened?" he asked them as they entered the castle.

"Things got more complicated, and we need to see Eldream immediately," Starlow told him.

"I see. He should be in his room. I´m still concerned about everyone…we don´t know what Dark Nico could do," the Magikoopa replied.

"Don´t worry, we´ll stop him before he can inflict any harm on anyone," Dreambert assured him.

"That´s what I hope as well. I´ll go and patrol around the castle," Kamek said and flew outside.

"Well then, let´s go," Mario said, and they went towards the secret staircase.

They arrived at the staircase a few seconds later and entered it. After walking up the stairs, they reached Eldream´s room and knocked at the door. The Pi'illo Elder opened the door, and looked surprised by the amount of visitors he had.

"Prince Dreambert? And the other ones as well? What brings you here?" he asked the group.

"Greetings, Eldream. We were going to stop Dark Nico, but he has escaped into Nightmare Dozing Sands. We need a quick way to reach him without having to look for Nightmarepoints. I thought that you might know a way to do so," Dreambert explained.

"Hm, interesting. I think I know something that could help you. The Dream World and the Nightmare World are two separate worlds, but they both have a point where they cross each other. And you know this place as well," he told them.

"Dream´s Deep!" the Pi'illo Prince exclaimed after a short while of thinking. Eldream nodded.

"Correct. If you enter Dream´s Deep, you should be able to access both the Dream World and the Nightmare World at any point. I´ll join you, so I can tell Dreambunny to assist you. You´ll need him so you can create a pathway to both worlds," he continued.

"Alright, we have a plan! First, we need to get to Dozing Sands…" Dreambert began, but Eldream interrupted him.

"That won´t be necessary. With Dreambunny´s help, you can reach new areas in Dream´s Deep. It is one big area, divided in several parts. You can reach Dream´s Deep between Dreamy Dozing Sands and Nightmare Dozing Sands, even if you enter Dream´s Deep here in Dreamy Pi'illo Castle," the old Pi'illo told them.

"Ah, I understand. Well then, into the Dream World we go!" Dreambert said, and they made their way downstairs.

Soon, they arrived in the Exhibition Room, and Luigi and Dreambert opened a Dream Portal on the Dreampoint. Eldream, Mario and Starlow entered the portal, while John stayed next to Luigi. The trio arrived in the Dream World, and Dreamy Luigi and Dreambert showed up a few seconds later.

"Now, let´s enter Dream´s Deep," Mario said.

"How is it down there? Is it like the Dream World and Nightmare World?" Starlow asked them.

"Well, it´s…complicated. You´ll see for yourself once we arrive," Dreambert replied.

"Alright, I guess…" Starlow said, curious.

They reached the access to Dream´s Deep, and jumped into it. Everything became darker and darker as they travelled into the depths. When they reached the ground, Starlow saw what Dreambert meant. The outlines of Luigis were floating around everywhere, as well as sentences.

"What…is this place?" she wondered.

"If you want to be precise, you can say that we are in the very depths of Luigi´s consciousness. Everything he thinks, everything he feels…it´s all here," Dreambert explained.

"That´s…creepy and fascinating at once," she said, as they watched the Luigis float by. "And what is Dreamy Luigi, then?" she asked.

"This place is basically Dreamy Luigi. Dream´s Deep changes, depending on the person dreaming," the Pi'illo Prince replied.

"Anyways, we have work to do. And by saying 'we', I mean you guys. C'mere, fluffykins!" Eldream shouted.

After a few seconds, Dreambunny hopped towards them. The Pi'illo elder petted the bunny, and then whispered into its ears. After he told the bunny what he had to do, it hopped around excitedly.

"My work here is done. Just tell him where you want to go, and he´ll guide you there. Good luck," he said, and disappeared into the Dream World again.

"Well then. We want to go to Nightmare Dozing Sands," Mario said to Dreambunny, who was waiting.

The bunny turned around and started hopping, the four heroes following him. After some walking, they found a small, definitely not natural passage in a wall. The bunny hopped through it, and they soon saw another portal leading to the Dream World.

"Are we below Dreamy Mushrise Park?" Dreambert asked the bunny, who nodded and continued hopping.

After more walking, they reached a wall. The bunny stopped in front of it and jumped repeatedly, spinning while in the air.

"Do you want us to drill through the wall?" Dreamy Luigi asked him.

Dreambunny jumped twice in confirmation, and Mario picked him up. He performed the same technique as he would use with the Side Drill, and the duo drilled through the wall, creating a new path for them. They continued walking, and after a few minutes, Dreambunny stopped and stomped the ground with its right foot.

"It appears that we arrived in the desired location," Dreambert assumed.

"So Nightmare Dozing Sands is below this point?" Starlow asked.

"Probably yes," the Pi'illo replied.

Mario and Dreambunny drilled through the ground, gaining access to the Nightmare World. After a few seconds, they reappeared.

"Will you wait for us here?" Dreamy Luigi asked him.

The bunny nodded and lied down on the ground, where it fell asleep quickly. The rest of them jumped down into the hole, but instead of everything turning brighter again, it stayed dark in the Nightmare World. They looked around, and tried to figure out how to find Nico. It wasn´t long until Mario spotted something familiar.

"Hey, doesn´t that look like a Nightmare Chunk?" he asked Dreambert and Dreamy Luigi.

"Yeah, you´re right. Why is it here?" Dreamy Luigi said.

"This area reminds me of a part in the Dream World we have been in. Maybe, after you broke the Nightmare Chunk there, it reappeared in its world, without a Pi'illo being held captive in it. Perhaps that´s why Dark Nico needs the Dark Stone Spirit´s help, so he can gather these chunks in order to recreate the Dark Stone…" Dreambert assumed.

"So basically all we need to do is wait here for Nico to come and collect this thing?" Starlow asked him.

"I think so. Let´s set up an ambush around here," he confirmed.

They all hid behind a rock, so they could watch the Nightmare Chunk. If Nico came to collect it, they would have to strike fast, so he couldn´t escape another time. Time went by, with the heroes growing more and more impatient. He sure had to find other chunks as well, but it couldn´t take him that long…

* * *

It had been two days since he disappeared. He didn´t tell him anything, simply gone without a trace. At least that's what he thought up until now. But now, he had found a sheet of paper in his room. How could he possibly betray him like this and meet with his archenemy?

He´d follow him, although he never thought that he might return to this island ever again. He would teach that guy a lesson, and maybe beat up these plumbers as well while he would do that. The figure walked over to a flying vehicle, and set off to reach a new location.

* * *

"It´s your turn," Dreamy Luigi quietly told his brother. They were playing UNO because Nico took so long and Mario had a pack of UNO cards with him, and Starlow was currently in the lead with three cards, while Dreambert and Mario both had five and Dreamy Luigi had six.

"Sorry, Dreambert. This is my only blue one," Mario apologized, and played a +2 Card.

"I don´t want that. You take them, Starlow," the Pi'illo said and played a red +2 Card, forcing the Star Sprite to pick up four cards.

"I´ll pay you back eventually," she said, and played another card. They would have continued, but they suddenly heard voices.

"Ah, there it is. That should be the last one around here, right?" someone asked, and they identified the voice as Nico´s.

"Yeah. As soon as we have that one, we can go to the next Nightmare World," the Dark Stone Spirit confirmed.

"Well then, let´s go," Nicbot said.

"Strange…I feel a disturbance in this section. I think it´d be a good idea to look around here," the spirit said after a short pause.

"Hey! Look at what I´ve found," the robot shouted after a few seconds.

Mario, Dreamy Luigi, Starlow and Dreambert peaked out of their hideout, and saw the trio starring to the portal to Dream´s Deep. They had to strike now, or their cover would be blown too early.

"Wait…this should lead to Dream´s Deep. These portals don´t open up at random, someone created it," the spirit told them.

Mario picked up the cards and put them into his pocket. They ran out of their hiding spot and approached the villains, when the Dark Stone Spirit sensed them coming closer. It turned around and spotted them.

"Guys? I think we have visitors," the spirit told the other two. They turned around as well.

"No, not YOU again. You are starting to annoy me again, do you know that? And whenever something annoys me, I feel the need to blast it out of existence," Nico told them, seemingly angered by their presence.

"Well, here we are. Do you want to test your luck?" Starlow challenged him. They took battle stance, expecting the third fight against him.

"Master, I doubt that we are in the position to deal with them by ourselves yet. Perhaps we should use 'Plan F' for now," Nicbot suggested after a short while of silence.

"Hm…would that be enough power?" the human asked the spirit.

"I think so, but we´ll need this chunk as well. Only then I can start doing something," it told him.

The four heroes positioned themselves in front of the chunk, which would force Nico and Co. to battle through them. The human realised that he didn´t have another option right now.

"Alright then, I see where this is going. You want us to stay here, so you can possibly defeat me and Nicbot. Nice plan, but I think you forgot about one thing," he said, and created a blue ball of energy between his hands. With a grin, he said "I never play by rules".

A giant blue beam emerged from the ball of energy, which hit the heroes and sent them flying all over the place. They landed quite far away from him, and started running towards their foe again. Nico on the other hand shattered the Nightmare Chunk, and absorbed the Nightmare Energy in it. He then created a purple ball of energy, and threw it at the Dark Stone Spirit.

It absorbed the energy, and stated glowing. It focused, and started to create a being between them and the heroes. After it was finished, a portal appeared above them, showing Nightmare Somnom Woods. The trio jumped through it, the portal closing after them. The purple mass formed into something that Dreamy Luigi could only describe as a nightmare beyond nightmares.

The Nightmare Energy formed into what appeared to be a Nightmare King Boo, with several Nightmare Boos appearing around him.

"Are you scared yet, little plumber? I will enjoy every second of this fight, although you won´t be able to do anything other than standing there and shivering at my sight. HAHAHA!" he taunted Dreamy Luigi.

They had no choice right now. If they let this thing haunt Luigi´s dreams (or nightmares), he would most likely turn insane within a few days. Everyone, except Dreamy Luigi, took battle stance, as he was paralyzed from fear. Mario noticed this, and patted his back.

"Come on, you defeated this guy all by yourself, two times in a row! If we team up, he will be gone faster than you can say 'Poltergust'," the red plumber tried to calm him down.

It seemed to work, as he shivered less than before. He fused together with Mario, who felt stronger immediately. The trio waited for the Boo to attack, ready to take it down.

* * *

 _ **No no no no, you won´t make this a cliffhanger right now!**_

 **Oh yes, that´s what I´m doing. Deal with it, I´m going to sleep right now.**

 **I might have figured out something: If I take longer for a story to write/finish, I´ll be able to enjoy this much longer. Perhaps that is why I took so long with the last chapters…well, we´ll see. Maybe I´ll just take my time, maybe I won´t.**

 **We know what Dark Nico´s plan is, but dammit, he escaped yet again. And now he left a literal nightmare behind to fight the heroes. How will this turn out? I´d say…**

… **Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	5. Going after the human

"I think we escaped, for now at least," Nico said after they landed in Nightmare Somnom Woods.

"Yes, but we have a problem. If they can travel via Dream´s Deep, they will be able to catch up to us in no time," the Dark Stone Spirit replied.

"Hm…I think I remember Dreambert telling me that a Dreambunny belonging to Eldream can access Dream´s Deep with someone´s help," the human said after he thought for a while.

"So we need to catch a bunny in order to prevent them from accessing Dream´s Deep?" Nicbot asked.

"Probably yes. Say," Nico asked the spirit," are there Nightmarepoints in Pi'illo Castle and Mushrise Park?"

* * *

"Come on, ghost! Bring it on! Or is looking like a combination between Bowletta and Elder Princess Shroob the only thing you can do?" Mario challenged Nightmare King Boo.

This of course enraged the nightmare, and tricked him into charging at the red plumber, who had hoped to lure him into a trap. The Boo focused on Mario, which allowed Starlow and Dreambert to land a hit with their love beam.

Nightmare King Boo got stunned, and Mario and Dreamy Luigi started building a Luiginary Hammer. The Nightmare Boos assisting their boss interrupted them, however, and the Boo King managed to free himself from the stun.

He now sent his minions towards the couple, while he turned invisible. The Boos attacked one by one, so Starlow and Dreambert were able to dodge their attacks. This kept them busy, however, and Nightmare King Boo suddenly appeared right behind Mario. He rammed into the red plumber and shot a Nightmare Sphere from his crown, which weakened Mario quite a bit.

As the nightmare was about to land the final blow on Mario, Dreamy Luigi separated himself from his brother and appeared in front of his archenemy. He took his own hammer out and smacked the ghost away, only to fuse with Mario again.

"Have you gained enough confidence yet to beat that guy up, bro?" Mario asked Dreamy Luigi.

"I have got to do what I need to do in order to save my bro," he replied in his head.

Mario thought about it. Whatever the dangers were, Luigi wouldn´t ever stop trying to protect him. This was truly a brother like no other. Luigi was known for being a coward, but still it was his time to shine whenever Mario was in danger. And yet again he saved him from King Boo, even if this one was made of Nightmare Energy.

The Nightmare Boos hovered back towards their boss. The heroes needed a strategy if they wanted to bring him down, because the Boos always interrupted any strong attacks against him. If they could just get them out of the way…

It was then that Starlow had an idea. She told Mario about it, who nodded and prepared for another attack. Starlow and Dreambert fired another beam at Nightmare King Boo, which stunned him yet again. This time, however, Mario threw a Shock Bomb, preventing the Nightmare Boos from performing any action.

With all their enemies locked in place, Mario and Dreamy Luigi set up for a Luiginary Wall attack. The red plumber hit the spinning Dreamy Luigi into the pile of enemies, and he got deflected from the wall of Luiginoids, only to be fired back by Mario again. This continued, until the Luiginoids stacked up as a tower behind the enemies. Mario hit Dreamy Luigi into the tower, and it collapsed onto the Nightmare Boos and their leader, inflicting great damage overall.

The Nightmare Boos exploded after this attack and turned into Nightmare Energy, which disappeared a second after the Boos had been defeated. This only left Nightmare King Boo, who created five clones around him. They all turned invisible, and became visible gain after 10 seconds. They must have shuffled, so the heroes couldn´t attack the real one right away.

The enemies positioned themselves in a circle around them, and the circle started spinning, with the crowns of three Nightmare King Boos glowing. Soon, spheres were shot from the crowns, and the quartet narrowly avoided the crossfire. The crowns of the other Boos glowed now instead, and more spheres were fired soon, one of which hit Starlow. She didn´t faint, but was barely able to keep her eyes open.

The attacking speed of the Boos increased, with the Boos now rapidly shooting the spheres at Mario and Co. If they didn´t find a way out of here, they´d be doomed. It was Dreambert who spotted their opportunity. He saw a Luiginoid-Formation, and quickly told Dreamy Luigi what he had found. He on the other hand jumped into it, and came back with an army of Luiginoids. They instantly formed into the Luiginary Ball, and Mario grabbed one of the Luiginoids and started swinging the ball around.

The Nightmare King Boo clones disappeared as the ball hit them, leaving the real one. He got smacked by the ball and landed on the ground, and Mario used this to hop onto the ball and instantly execute a Luiginary Ball attack. He kicked the ball into the nightmare, defeating it with this attack. Purple light emitted from Nightmare King Boo, before it exploded in a burst of purple stars. The Nightmare Energy left behind disappeared shortly afterwards.

Mario and Starlow both replenished their health and energy, and they finally got to rest again. Their task was obvious: they had to chase Nico, who was currently in Nightmare Somnom Woods. They entered the portal leading to Dream´s Deep, but as soon as they landed there, they noticed something.

Dreambunny was gone, nowhere to be found. They looked around for him, but they just weren´t able to locate him. They decided to check the other parts of Dream´s Deep, as well as Dreamy Mushrise Park and Dreamy Pi'illo Castle.

After searching the entire accessible area, they gave up. The bunny was gone without a trace, which meant that they had no other choice but to find a Nightmarepoint in Somnom Woods. They returned to the Dream Portal in Dreamy Pi'illo Castle, and Mario and Starlow left the Dream World through it.

As soon as they landed in the real world again, they spotted something that alarmed them. Next to Luigi lied an unconscious John. The green plumber woke up, and the rest of them updated him on what they had found. The heroes decided to go and find Kamek first, so he would take care of John. Then they had to find out why he passed out, although they pretty much knew the answer.

It was most likely Nico who had done this, but this left the question on how he managed to enter the castle without anyone noticing him. Kamek had been patrolling around the castle, and all doors and windows were guarded by at least three Pi'illos. Perhaps it was best to ask John, as had been knocked out for whatever reason.

It didn´t take Kamek long to bring him back, and he let Dr. Toadley take care of him, so he could keep patrolling. As soon as he was able to both think and speak again, the heroes asked John one question.

"So, John, what was the reason you passed out?" Dreambert asked the Pi'illo.

"It was Nico. He suddenly appeared from the caves behind Pi'illo Castle, and as soon as he saw me, he threw one of his spheres at me. That´s the last thing I can remember," he told them. What he said made them worry. Was there a way to enter the castle they didn´t know about yet?

They decided to explore the caves, but they weren´t able to find anything. This whole case was a mystery, but they had to focus on taking Nico down as quickly as they could for now, which meant that they would have to travel to Somnom Woods.

There was still one thing that bothered them, though. They entered the secret staircase in the castle and visited Eldream again, hoping to find out where Dreambunny was right now.

"Greetings, Eldream. We cannot find Dreambunny anywhere in Dream´s Deep or the accessible Dream World. Do you know where he could be?" Dreambert asked the Pi'illo elder once they were in his room again.

"Really? This is strange, truly it is. He wouldn´t ever leave his place if he has been ordered to stay there, so my only assumption is that someone forced him to leave," he replied. The heroes looked at each other.

"Nico," they said in unison. Now it started to make sense. Nico must have somehow entered Pi'illo Castle after he found out that they travelled via Dream´s Deep. Then he wanted to catch Dreambunny by accessing the Dream World here, as Luigi slept down there, possibly checking Mushrise Park as well because they currently had the only entrances to Dream´s Deep. As he wanted to enter the Dream World, John surprised him, so Nico knocked him out. He then most likely accessed Dream´s Deep and caught Dreambunny, just to disappear again.

"It appears that Nico probably holds your beloved bunny captive, Eldream," Starlow told him.

"Oh my, this is not good. Please, go and free him, he doesn´t deserve this," Eldream begged.

"Don´t worry, we´ll stop Dark Nico and get your pet back," Mario assured him.

Kamek promised them to keep an eye on both the outside of the castle as well as the caves behind it. He really tried his best, but if he kept on working like this, Mario and Co. doubted that he would be able to fight off Nico. They knew that they couldn´t change his mind, though, so they let him keep doing what he had been doing up until now.

They left the castle together with John as soon as he felt good enough to travel with them again, and made their way towards Mushrise Park, and then continued towards Somnom Woods. Once they arrived, they stumbled over a small problem: how were they going to find a Nightmarepoint in a short amount of time in this giant forest?

"Wait…we do know someone who lived here for a long time, don´t we?" Starlow asked the rest of the group.

"Bedsmith!" they said in realisation, and made their way to the house of the yellow Pi'illo.

They reached his house and knocked at the door. It opened, and revealed the bed-crafting Pi'illo himself. He looked surprised as he saw all of them, but instantly cheered up once he spotted Dreambert.

"PRINCE DREAMBERT! And you other guys as well. What can I do for you?" he asked, excited as always once he sees Dreambert. He may have gotten to take his desired nap on the Pi'illo Prince, but this didn´t change his attitude towards him.

"Greetings, Bedsmith. We hoped that you could help us with a problem we have," Dreambert explained.

"BEDSMITH! WILL! HELP! What´s the problem?" he shouted.

"Well, a few things have happened…" Starlow started, and together they told him the whole story. He nodded after they finished their explanation and thought for a while.

"Do you happen to know the location of a Nightmarepoint?" Dreambert asked him.

"BEDSMITH! DOES! REMEMBER! There is one to the east; I collected wood in that area for making beds a few months ago. You can´t miss it, just go east and you´ll find it," he told the group.

"Finally good news. Thank you, Bedsmith," Starlow said, relieved that they finally managed to find a way to reach Nico again.

"No problem. See you next time," he replied, and went into his house again.

"Well then, let´s find that Nightmarepoint," Mario said, and they set off to find the access to the Nightmare World.

It didn´t take them long to find it, located on a small island in the sea of poisonous water. Starlow flew the brothers over there, and Luigi and Dreambert opened a Nightmare Portal above them. Mario and Starlow then both entered it, ready to face Nico and his allies.

* * *

 **And yet again Nico takes away the advantage of our heroes, forcing them to take the long way. What will happen in Somnom Woods and its Nightmare counterpart? Will Dark Nico succeed in recreating the Dark Stone? Will Mario and Co. be able to stop him? And, most importantly: will Dreambert and Starlow be able to marry each other, or will the dark soul prevent them from living together happily?**

 **We will see, and I want to take my time and remind you readers that feedback/opinions/thoughts are welcome and appreciated.**

 **With that being said: Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	6. The only way out

The duo landed on the other side of the portal and looked around after they arrived in the new area. Mario and Starlow weren´t able to spot a Nightmare Chunk right away, but they were sure that they´d find one sooner or later. Dreamy Luigi and Dreambert appeared next to them, ready to find both a chunk and Nico with his allies.

"I´d say that we simply look around," Dreambert suggested.

"Looks like that´s the only thing we can do right now. But how do we want to prevent Nico and the rest from fleeing into another Nightmare World?" Starlow replied.

"Hm…that might be a problem," Dreamy Luigi said.

"The Dark Stone Soul is the one who opens the portals, right? So all we need to do is separate it from Nico and Nicbot, or maybe even knock it out," the Star Sprite finally said after a while of thinking.

"That could work. Alright then, let´s go!" Mario shouted, and they went off in order to find one of the objects Nico, or rather Dark Nico, desired so much.

They wandered around in silence, so they wouldn´t alarm their enemies by talking. It took several minutes until Dreambert felt concentrated Nightmare Energy nearby. He led the way, and they soon found a Nightmare Chunk floating above the ground.

"This is it," the Pi'illo announced.

"Are you sure that he will fall for this again? He isn´t stupid," Starlow asked them.

"Maybe he still expects us to be in Nightmare Dozing Sands or in the real world," Dreamy Luigi hoped.

"I had hope that you would give up, but I still expected you to show up here because you are a bunch of persistent little insects that I want to crush under my shoes…no, wait…I like these shoes…under Nicbot´s feet!" a familiar voice on their right said.

They turned around to face Nico, who stood there together with his robot and the Dark Stone Spirit. He looked pretty annoyed by now, but he still had his confident look in his eyes.

"Well then, Nico. Will you give up now? We had defeated every single toy you threw at us nine months ago, and it won´t be any different this time," Starlow said to him.

"I think you know the answer to that question as well as I do. And, back then, I underestimated you, which unfortunately led to my defeat. But now I am about to receive unlimited power and ruin your wedding day. This is payback, with interest on the price you made me pay!" he shouted, and Starlow and Dreambert could feel hate welling up inside of him.

"I see how this goes. Before we fight, tell us what you have done to Dreambunny," Dreambert demanded.

"I´ve brought him somewhere safe, don´t worry about that. He was simply too helpful, so I had to take care of that. I guess John is alright again?" he replied with a grin.

"So it really was you who did that. You are going to pay, for all the things you are trying to do and the ones you have done already," Mario challenged him, and took battle stance, together with the rest of the group.

"I just want to have that chunk next to you; do we really have to fight over that again? Oh well, if you want a fight," he told them and took battle stance himself, while Nicbot shifted his left hand into a blade," I´ll make sure that you get a good one!"

The human created a purple sphere and threw it towards Starlow, who had to keep flying away from it until one of her friends took care of the homing projectile. He and Nicbot on the other hand charged at Mario and Dreamy Luigi, with Nico activating his own blade. They engaged in close combat, the brothers fighting back with their hammers, while Dreambert could do nothing to help anyone.

The brothers battled the opponents with all their strength, but none of them had the upper hand. This lasted until Starlow remembered their strategy they used to take down Nico on their last adventure, which was risky because Nico was in a melee fight with the plumbers.

She raced towards the fighting group, the sphere close behind her back. There was one thing she didn´t see coming, however. The Dark Stone Spirit saw her closing in on them, and of course it wouldn´t stay there and do nothing about her threatening its new partner.

"Hey, Nico! Star Sprite behind you!" it shouted, and the human turned his head. He saw her approaching, and managed to roll backwards underneath her, forcing Mario, who he had been fighting with, to dodge-roll to the side.

The sphere kept following her, but it was Dreambert who bought Mario enough time to help her. After he saw that the Dark Stone Spirit warned Nico about Starlow, he decided to distract the enemies in order to give his friends enough time to help the Star Sprite. The Pi'illo attacked the spirit, and since it wasn´t a fighter, it needed help from either Nico or his robot.

The human ran over to them and counterattacked Dreambert with a barrage of spheres, which he avoided. Mario in the meantime was finally able to hammer the sphere, which was chasing Starlow, into the ground, where it exploded. Dreambert was in trouble as Nico kept his attack on him up, but he didn´t notice Mario charging towards the Dark Stone Spirit.

The red plumber knocked the spirit onto the ground with his hammer, where it stayed because of the stunning impact. Nico saw this, and he seemed to get very angry now.

"You…I´ll make sure that you´ll regret ever standing in my way," he quietly said.

Four light blue spheres started circling around the human, and he charged at Mario with his blade. He almost reached the red plumber, but Starlow and Dreambert managed to fire a love beam at Nico, which struck their target. He tripped because of the sudden energy hurting him, and Mario sprinted towards him in order to finish him off.

However, Nicbot was currently beating Dreamy Luigi in their 1vs1, as the robot kept pushing him backwards. He saw himself forced to dematerialize himself in order to fuse together with Mario, giving Nicbot enough time to realise what happened to the Dark Stone Spirit and Nico. He shifted his right hand into his launcher and fired a missile directly next to where Nico lied, and then continued to shoot at Starlow and Dreambert.

Mario was about to strike the defenseless Nico, when two things happened. The first one was Dreamy Luigi fusing with him, which could only mean one thing. Right as he thought of it, the second thing happened: the missile the robot fired at him hit the red plumber, sending him flying away from Nico. Starlow and Dreambert were shocked when they saw what happened, but they soon were struck by missiles as well, knocking them onto the ground.

The projectiles caused great damage to the couple and medium damage to Mario, as he had the additional power of Dreamy Luigi inside of him. Everyone was still able to fight, but Nico recovered from the blast he had taken and slowly stood up, when his robot reached him and helped him. They both looked at the Dark Stone Spirit, which still lied on the ground, unable to move.

"You won´t get out of here this time," Starlow told him, and it looked like they had the upper hand.

"Nice strategy, I´ll give you that. But once I have a goal, I will ALWAYS find a way to reach it, even if I have to take the long way around," Nico replied. Dreambert thought for a short while, before he realised something.

"The portal! We have to do everything we can so he can´t escape through it!" he said to his friends, and a grin crossed Nico´s face.

"You´re smart enough to find that out, huh? If I can´t flee into another Nightmare World, I´ll use the real world as an escape route," he announced.

The three heroes positioned themselves so he had to force his way through them, and they were sure that he´d try to break through their blockade. What they completely forgot was the Nightmare Chunk, but Nico was willing to remember them about that. Doing it his way, of course. He created a red sphere and threw it at the chunk, shattering it as soon as the projectile hit it. He then absorbed the Nightmare Energy.

"Time I put all of this to use," he said.

He pointed at the Dark Stone Spirit, and it turned into a purple mass that started flowing towards him. As soon as it reached him, it fused with him, and a purple light emitted from Nico´s body.

"Don´t need to worry about that guy for now…" he started, and then looked at the heroes. "So all we have to do now is getting out of here. C´mon, Nicbot. Time for a grand finale!" he shouted, and the two foes ran towards them.

Mario and Dreamy Luigi prepared a Luiginary Ball, and started rolling towards Nico and Nicbot. Starlow and Dreambert shot another beam at them, but they managed to sidestep it. As the two fronts were about to meet, Nico summoned a blue ball of energy in his hands, and the heroes realised what he was preparing a little too late. The human fired a giant beam at the plumbers, which knocked them back all the way towards the couple, and the ball crashed right into them, collapsing after the impact.

The collision stunned all three of them for a few seconds, allowing Nico and Nicbot to run past them and reach the portal. There, he separated himself from the Dark Stone Spirit again.

"Let´s go. There was something I wanted to collect in Somnom Woods anyways, so that is just fine by me," the human told his robot. Nicbot carried it in both of his hands, and they jumped through the portal.

"Dammit…they escaped yet again…" a quite beaten up Starlow said after she recovered for a bit.

"Seems to be some sort of unwritten rule…" Dreamy Luigi assumed after he jumped out of Mario again.

"So, what do we do now?" the red plumber asked the rest of the group.

"We only have one choice for now: Chasing that guy in order to take him down for good," Dreambert responded.

They ran towards the portal themselves, and Mario and Starlow went through it as soon as they reached it. They arrived in the real world, but they couldn´t see Nico anywhere. What they could see was John, seemingly immobilized by a lightning bolt from the human.

"John? Was it Nico?" Mario asked him, while Luigi and Dreambert returned to their normal state.

"Of course it was him. He jumped out of the portal, together with his robot, which carried something purple in its hands And now I can´t move…" he replied.

"Don´t worry, that effect goes away after some time. And since we have no idea where Nico is right now, we should return to Pi'illo Castle and figure out a new plan," Dreambert suggested.

They all agreed, and Mario carried the Pi'illo, while Starlow brought him and Luigi to the edge of the poisonous lake. From there, they made their way back to the castle, hoping to find a new way to stop their human frenemy.

* * *

"Ah, there it is," Nico said after they reached the desired location.

"It is…beautiful, a wonderful piece of machinery," Nicbot said, happy to see such a dangerous machine.

"This all looks…fascinating. I still need to get used to this new form…" the Dark Stone Spirit added, not looking like the Dark Stone Spirit anymore.

"I didn´t know that this would happen to you, but now we have to deal with that. This shouldn´t stop us, and this thing will help us to collect them once we are done wit Step 2 of my plan…" the human replied, rubbing his hands in excitement.

* * *

 **Alright, I might owe you an explanation on why I took so long. Here we go:**

 **I´ve been busy with both school and gaming. Not a great excuse, but there´s something else. I hadn´t received reviews up until yesterday, so I was some sort of lacking the will to keep on writing. Now that the guest who has been reviewing every single one of the chapters up until now reviewed again, I finally feel like writing again. Thanks for that, reviews mean a lot to me.**

 **As for the next chapter: I´ll probably take my time, as school grades are about to be set. So…I don´t know, I most likely won´t start writing before Monday, we´ll see.**

 **Nico escaped again? Not a surprise, I guess, but this time he took the Dark Stone Spirit with him. This could get interesting. Oh, and to the reviewing guest: You´ve taken a good guess, I´ll tell you that.**

 **Up until then: Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	7. New plan, new technique

**Alright, I should point out something. I´ve edited it into my notes in Chapter 3 a few days ago, but in case you missed it: The idea of the Dark Stone Spirit doesn´t belong to me. Credit goes to MexiGirl56 and her story "The Nightmare Curse". I completely forgot about that, I need to thank GamehunterMC for (unintentionally) reminding me of that.**

 **I want to thank you guys (mostly the guest) for reading and reviewing the stuff I upload as well. Means a lot to me, as it motivates me to keep on writing (although I´m wasting my time on gaming…I don´t see a reason to change that, though. That´s the thing with having friends you can play with…).**

 **I think that´d be everything. You know what to do now: read and enjoy!**

* * *

Pi'illo Island wasn´t too far away anymore. Just a few more hours, and he´d reach it. Then, he could teach the fool that betrayed him a lesson. And maybe pummel his archenemy as well. He had sworn to not return to this island, but now it was necessary.

* * *

Mario and Co. returned to Pi'illo Castle in order to figure out a new plan to stop Nico from achieving too much power. Their problem was that they didn´t know where he would go next or where he currently was. Perhaps someone knew something about his current location, otherwise they´d have to find a new solution. They arrived at the castle and were immediately welcomed by a certain Magikoopa flying on his broom towards them. Kamek met them on the bridge leading to the castle.

"Hey, how were you doing? Not too well, I guess," he said as he looked at John, who still lied in Mario´s arms, immobilized.

"You must be a genius in order to figure that out…" Starlow replied, still recovering from the massive impact the Luiginary Ball had caused.

"Oh well, get in and we´ll patch you up again. And then you are going to tell us what happened," he suggested, and flew inside. The heroes followed him, not in the condition to do anything else.

They arrived at the infirmary, and everyone besides Luigi occupied a bed. Toadley and Kamek soon entered, and the Magikoopa used his magic to shift into a white Magikoopa.

"John probably needs my attention right now, could you take care of the other guys?" he asked the Toad.

"Are you right about that? You certainly are. Will you guys be alright? Of course you will," Dr. Toadley replied. They treated the heroes´ wounds, and Kamek freed the Pi'illo from his inability to move.

When they were better, Starlow updated them on how things had gone and that they needed a new plan in order to stop Dark Nico. Kamek thought about it, and left the room for a few minutes. When he returned, he was in his normal form again, carrying a book under his arm.

"I´ve read this book a few months ago, and I think I remember something that could help us," he told them, and showed them the book. It was the one telling about the Dream Stone and Dark Stone. He opened it on the page which contained the instructions needed for creating the Dark Stone.

"Here. It says that the Dark Stone can only be created in the Dark Stone Cave. If he wants to recreate it, he will have to go there. And that´s where you will wait for him," Kamek explained.

"That sounds promising…just like all the other plans we had…" Luigi said, not too optimistic.

"This plan can only fail if he manages to defeat us, and I doubt that he has enough power to do that without the Dark Stone," Dreambert replied, hoping that they could finish all of this there.

"Well then, we have a plan. We should prepare ourselves, it will take him some time to collect all of the chunks," Mario suggested.

"That reminds me…doesn´t he need a Pi'illo in order to reach the Nightmare World?" Starlow wondered. Just as she said that, a Deco Pi'illo hurried into the infirmary.

"There might be something you want to hear about, Prince Dreambert. Nico…he was seen opening a Nightmare Portal by himself, alongside with a purple, human-looking being floating next to him and his robot," the Pi'illo told them, seemingly nervous.

"What? Is that true?" Dreambert asked him.

"As true as I am talking to you," the Pi'illo replied.

"Hm…could it be…I think it is. Alright, thank you. You are dismissed," the Pi'illo Prince said after a short while of thinking. The Deco Pi'illo left the room again.

"My theory is that, since Nico absorbed so much Nightmare Energy, he is able to interact with the Nightmare World. For now he might only be able to open portals with the help of the Dark Stone Spirit, but who knows what he could do in the Nightmare World once he absorbed all of it…" he explained.

"So in other words, he could become an even more dangerous foe in the Nightmare World?" Luigi asked, shivering at the thought of an even more powerful Nico.

"Yes, but only as long as he hasn´t recreated the Dark Stone. Once he has done that, he´ll need it for power. And without Nightmare Orbs, he can´t power it up again. And in order for him to collect them, he needs sleeping individuals. And since we no longer have the equipment to play the Dreambeats so everyone on the island hears it, he needs to put them to sleep by himself. Everyone will be here, which means that he´d have to come here, providing we don´t stop him in the Dark Stone Cave. And since we all can come here quickly, and with Kamek defending this castle, he won´t stand a chance," Dreambert told them, trying to convince Luigi of them being superior to Nico.

"As long as he doesn´t have an ace up his sleeve, it will work out. But what was that about a purple, human-looking being?" Starlow asked him.

"That´s a mystery to me as well. We will have to find out about that sooner or later," the Pi'illo Prince responded.

"Will you do that? Of course you will. However, should you recover first and then prepare yourselves? I think you should," Toadley spoke up, as he had been taking care of Mario the whole time.

"I´d advise you doing that as well. Meet me at the entrance once you are better again," Kamek said, and walked out of the room, where he had parked his broom.

"Do I wish there was a way to free Nico from his dark soul? I certainly do…" the Toad doctor muttered.

"Maybe there is…we need to concentrate on stopping Dark Nico for now, however," Starlow said.

"Couldn´t we use the Dark Stone to our advantage and separate them, without that horrible side effect Light Nico told us about?" Luigi asked as he had an idea.

"Speaking of him…I wonder if he still fights his counterpart. And I bet that Dark Nico would destroy it again before we could get the chance to do so," Starlow assumed.

"We don´t have time to worry about all of that now. Let´s focus on our task for now," Mario interrupted them.

"Are you all ready to go again? I think that you are. Would you have gone no matter what I said? I´m sure that you would have…" Toadley asked and answered, and walked towards the door. Before he left, he turned around. "Do I know who you guys are? Of course I do. Am I still going to wish you best of luck against someone like Nico? I think I am…," was the last thing he said before he went out of the infirmary.

"I´m confident that we will win, but he is right. That boy is not to be underestimated," Starlow said after a while of silence.

"That´s true. I think we should go and meet with Kamek," Mario suggested.

They walked out of the infirmary and made their way to the entrance, where Kamek was hovering on his broom. He was reading another book, which had the title "Different types of Magic and how to use them". As soon as he saw them closing in, he put it away and landed on the ground. His broom disappeared, and he walked towards them.

"I´d let you go right away, but I´ve found out about a new technique you could use with Love Magic. I thought that you might want to learn it, so you can use it against Nico," he told the group of five.

"Hm…depends on what it is. I have to admit that only firing a beam is both boring and inefficient," Starlow said.

"Well, you would be able to shoot spheres of love at your foes, and with some training, you could even control them while they are flying, just like how Nico can do it," he responded.

"That sounds neat. Can we start right now?" was Dreambert´s reaction.

"Of course you can. According to this book, it should go like this…" Kamek started the tutorial.

He taught them how to use their magic to form spheres first. It took them a few minutes until they got it right, but in the end they succeeded in both creating and firing a love sphere. It took them longer to learn how to control it, however, but they eventually figured it out. After everyone in the main hall hid behind objects because of the numerous uncontrolled spheres flying around, that is.

After many tries, equally as many spheres and one injury, they managed to freely control the projectile. Kamek, who had bunkered down behind a shield he created, applauded them, as well as the Mario Bros, who were finally able to safely leave their hiding spots in the shape of two pillars.

"So you were able to get it right…eventually," the Magikoopa said, glad that the time he spent on reading the book and teaching them wasn´t a waste.

"Sorry, but we never needed that kind of magic until Nico showed up, okay? Anyways, we should probably go to the Dark Stone Cave now. I bet Nico has made a lot of progress by now," Starlow suggested.

"You are right. I´ll stay here and defend the castle, just in case something goes wrong or Nico decides to show up here for whatever reason," Kamek replied.

"Alright then, let´s go. See you later, Kamek," Mario said, and the four heroes and John left Pi'illo Castle again.

They walked around the castle and made their way to Mount Pajamaja, where the Dark Stone Cave, and thereby Nico´s last destination was located. After climbing up the mountain, they reached the stone marking the entrance to the cave.

Mario pushed the stone back, so they could fit through the small passage. The inside of the cave hadn´t changed, although Dreambert thought that the flames on the Pi'illars were burning with more intensity. Could the cave be reacting to the power of the Nightmare Chunks and the Dark Stone Spirit? He shook his head and threw that thought away. He needed all of his focus on this task: taking down Nico.

They reached the cave itself, where the pedestal for the Dark Stone stood. The aura around it shimmered purple. No sign of Nico being here, and he certainly hadn´t been here yet. They decided to lay low and ambush him while he was busy crafting the Dark Stone. They were completely silent, they could only hear themselves breathing and their own heartbeat.

"To think that all of this happened because he had a difficult time back then, so his dark side gained more power…" Luigi interrupted the silence after a few minutes, careful to only whisper.

"I know. He doesn´t deserve something like this. It seems as if bad things always happen to the good and nice guys, like Peach for example," Starlow replied.

"We had only locked Antasma away so we could prevent him from abusing the Dark Stone´s power. And what happened to us?" Dreambert added, sadness and anger swinging in his voice.

"Quiet. I feel Nightmare Energy coming up here. I think that a portal to the Nightmare World is opening," John stopped their conversation.

They all hid behind Pi'illars, and waited for someone to appear. Whatever was going to happen next, they were not allowed to lose or fail.

* * *

 **So…I´ve recently noticed that Nintendo is doing a remake of Superstar Saga. I have already informed myself a bit more, and now I´m curious: what do you think of the changes? I don´t mind the new mode they had announced, that sure will be interesting. What bugs me is the fact that they are going to do it in 3D style, and I would have preferred if they would stick to the 2D sprites, because…well, it doesn´t feel like Superstar Saga. Tell me what you think about that. If you want to, of course.**

 **Looks like there is another confrontation between Nico and his allies and our heroes coming up. How will that turn out? I´m going to say that much: we haven´t reached the end yet. There is more to come.**

 **Business as usual: Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	8. Making progress

**Next chapter, here we go.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

It wasn´t long until a Nightmare Portal opened above the pedestal, and Nico and Nicbot both jumped out of it. A purple being followed them, and it looked like a human as well. Dreambert, John and Starlow sensed the Nightmare Energy coming from it, however, and they understood what this being was.

It was the Dark Stone Spirit, and it seemed to have obtained a new form. The heroes held back, so they could catch them off guard and end this quickly, as well as to gather some information on what happened to the spirit.

"Well then, we finally made it. Is everything and everyone ready?" Nico asked his group.

"Let´s see…our surprise is placed where you wanted it to be and is on standby. We have collected all of the chunks, we are here in the Dark Stone Cave and we have the Dark Stone Spirit here. I am ready, and I know that you are ready as well, master," his robot replied.

"I am getting the hang of using this form; I had plenty of time since we left the Nightmare World. I´m ready as well," the spirit added.

"Perfect. So…let us begin," the human told them.

He stretched out both of his hands, and they started glowing purple. A purple mass formed around them, and it moved onto the pedestal, where it took the shape of the Dark Stone.

"Ready for the final step?" he asked as he looked at the Dark Stone Spirit. Before it could answer, however, Mario and Co. stepped out of their hiding places. Starlow and Dreambert hit Nico with a love beam, immobilizing him. The human winced from pain, and before Nicbot could do anything, Mario and Luigi hammered the robot into a wall. There, they pinned him to the ground.

"Defeating you is the final step to restore peace on this island, and we are more than ready to do that," the red plumber announced.

"It is you again…why are you so determined to stop my partner? I bet there is a big backstory behind all of this," the spirit calmly asked the heroes.

"He tried to take over our kingdom nine months ago, if you want to know," Starlow replied.

"That might seem like a reason to hate him, but do you know if he would have been a bad ruler?" it asked the group.

"Well…we never really thought about it…," Luigi answered, and everyone thought about how Nico could have ruled the kingdom. Sure, he used violence in order to try and reach his goals, but was Dark Nico really that bad?

Their thoughts suddenly got interrupted by Nico regaining his ability to move and Nicbot throwing the plumbers off of him, as they were distracted by the Dark Stone Spirit. Nico managed to move behind the pedestal, and Starlow and Dreambert scooted backwards as Nicbot dashed towards them, now with his blades active. They dodged the robot´s strikes, and both groups regrouped.

"All you had to do was to play along and follow my commands. Nobody would have got hurt, and all of this wouldn´t be happening now. So WHY did you have to make it complicated, instead of going the easy way and let me rule you?" Nico asked them, seemingly angry at them.

"Nobody would have wanted to see Peach being dethroned by a teenager, and we all know that nobody wanted you to rule the kingdom," Mario replied, as he and his friends took battle stance.

"Fine then, you want to play that game again, don´t you? I don´t have anything against that, so come at us! Show us how long you can last against us!" Nico accepted their challenge and took battle stance himself.

An awkward moment of silence followed, as both groups starred at each other, waiting for the enemy to make the first move. After about 30 seconds, they grew tired of waiting.

"Hey…shouldn´t we start fighting?" Nicbot asked the heroes.

"We´re waiting for you to attack," Mario replied.

"So are we…how about Rock, Paper, Scissors, so we can decide on who will start the fight?" Nico suggested.

"Sounds fair. Ceasefire until we have decided and regrouped?" Starlow suggested back.

"Accepted. Who of you wants to go?" the human asked.

"Luigi," Mario and Starlow said in unison.

"Yeah! Wait…WHAT?" the green plumber shouted, as he realised what they said.

"Alright, I´ll 'handle' this myself," Nico announced as he stepped towards them.

Mario and Co. pushed Luigi forwards as well, until Nico and Luigi stood in front of each other.

"The loser has to attack first. Deal?" Nico asked them.

"Deal," the others said.

They both got their hands ready, and looked at each other. Starlow decided to do the countdown.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot!" she said out loud, and they both showed what they picked. Of course they picked the same, paper it was. They went for another round, this time however, they both picked scissors.

"Ugh…I´ll count down this time," Nico said, and they got ready again.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors, Sphere!" Nico shouted, and created a light blue sphere in his right hand, which he threw into Luigi´s face. The green plumber passed out, much to the heroes´ shock.

"I thought we had a deal? And now you attack out of nowhere? You are such a cheating coward!" Starlow shouted at the human, full of disgust.

"The ones who follow the rules will be on the losing side. Welcome to reality, let us show you what it is like," Nicbot told them, and he dashed towards Mario, who managed to take his hammer out and deflect the robot´s attack. Nicbot was fighting the plumber now in a close combat duel.

"Pathetic. You really thought that I would play fair, and now you will have to pay the price," Nico said, and created six light blue spheres above him, which he sent flying towards the heroes.

Starlow and Dreambert prepared themselves, and created love spheres on their own. They sent them against Nico´s projectiles, and the love spheres smashed through his. The human, being caught off guard, got hit by two of the spheres and stumbled backwards.

"What…that damn Magikoopa! I´ll take care of him the next time I see him," he angrily said, weakened by the love that hit him.

"We are going to take you down this time, for real," Mario challenged him, as he blocked another strike from the robot.

"Deal with him. I will pay these two back," Nico told his robot, and activated his blade.

He dashed towards Starlow and Dreambert, who created more spheres in order to stop him. Surprisingly enough, he was able to deflect them with his blade, and closed in on them. They increased their altitude so he couldn´t strike them with his blade, but the human ran up to a wall near them and performed a Wall Jump, bringing him right next to them.

Mario on the other hand was busy keeping Nicbot away from him. The robot had both of his hands shifted into blades now, and the red plumber had a hard time dodging and blocking the barrage of strikes Nicbot sent at him. The robot, however, got a little carried away, and attacked really aggressively. It took him some time, but Mario found a way to counter the attacks.

When the robot was about to go for a big blow, Mario managed to hit him with an uppercut, sending the robot flying backwards into the air. Starlow and Dreambert were extremely lucky, because the robot collided with Nico mid-air, just as he was about to finish them off. The duo tumbled to the ground, allowing Mario to bring Luigi back with a 1-Up Mushroom.

"What have I told you about going too aggressively?" Nico shouted at Nicbot after they both got up again.

"Um…nothing?" the robot replied.

"Oh…yeah, you´re right…" Nico recalled. "In that case: don´t go too aggressively!"

"Alright…what a grouch…" Nicbot muttered, and shifted his right blade into his launcher.

"What did you just say?" Nico asked with a hint of anger in his voice.

"You understood me. Now deal with it, because we have a problem to take care off," Nicbot replied.

"I guess I´ll have to optimize you after we´re done with all of this," Nico whispered.

"We both know that it´d be way too boring without me having my own will," the robot told him.

"…I hate you…" Nico said, knowing that he was right, and gave up.

The heroes could have sworn that Nicbot was smiling, although he was a robot, as he said "No, you don´t".

"Ahem. While you guys were busy, I was doing something you might like, Nico," they heard the Dark Stone Spirit say.

They turned around to see the spirit melting together with the Nightmare Energy floating above the pedestal, forming a newly created Dark Stone. Mario and Co. thought about destroying it again, but Nico didn´t give them any time at all.

"Let´s tear this place down!" he told his robot, as the human ran towards the Dark Stone.

Nicbot´s response was shifting his second blade into a launcher as well, followed by firing them at the walls, ceiling and pillars of the cave. Cracks appeared on them, and it was obvious that the cave wasn´t a safe place to be anymore. Nico grabbed the Dark Stone and created a bunch of red spheres around him, which he threw against parts of the walls and ceiling without cracks, blasting them away.

Stones and dirt started to fall out of the holes, and a pillar broke. The cave would collapse in a few minutes, if they even had that much time. The heroes were focusing on realizing what was going on, which Nico and Nicbot used to run past them. Upon seeing them run by, Starlow managed to clear her head and think straight again.

"Guys! We need to get out of here NOW!" she shouted at them, as she dodged a piece of the ceiling which fell down. The other ones nodded and headed for the exit, only to find it blocked by stones which must have come from the ceiling. Nico and Nicbot weren´t there…

"Either they made it out in time, or they caused that to block the path…" Dreambert said, worried about their lives. If they couldn´t get out of the cave, they´d be done.

Mario and Luigi tried hammering the obstacle, but it wasn´t impressed by them at all. They could hear the cave collapsing, and it wouldn´t take long until the pathway collapsed as well. Without any hope left, they braced themselves for the inevitable and were about to say farewell to each other.

That was until the rocks shattered into pieces, revealing a certain Magikoopa hovering on his broom on the other side. When they didn´t move in shock, he rolled his eyes and hit them with his wand on their heads.

"What? Am I that ugly, or do you want to get buried? Get out of there!" he shouted at them, and they finally moved out of the cave, a few seconds before it completely collapsed, leaving behind nothing but rocks.

"Oh…my…Kamek, if you wouldn´t have been here…" Starlow managed to say.

"Well, no need to thank me. I figured that letting you go alone against Nico could still be dangerous, and since he´d be in the cave, you could keep him there for some time. So…I came here in order to assist you; turns out that Nico was about to 'rock' this," the Magikoopa explained.

"Did you see where they went?" Mario asked him, ignoring the extremely bad pun their savior made.

"Nicbot took Nico and the Dark Stone to the peak of the mountain, so I guess we should get them there," Kamek replied.

"Well then, we have no time to waste. He has the Dark Stone, although it isn´t powered up yet. I´m pretty sure that he might have found a way to fill it with Nightmare Orbs, could have to do with the surprise his robot was talking about. Onward!" Dreambert said, and they set off into the direction of the peak of Mt. Pajamaja.

* * *

 **And once again, Nico makes progress. The heroes barely escaped their grave, thanks to Kamek (who is a pretty cool character in the M &L series). As you can see, he is an important person during this story.**

 **Alright, last but not least: Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**

 **(PS: I have written this at 4 AM, so I think this classifies me as crazy…)**


	9. The uninvited guest, yet again

**To the guest: one of your guesses has been correct (or rather, two). Which one(s) will it be?**

 **Read and enjoy!**

* * *

The six of them chased after Nico as fast as they could, knowing that he was still vulnerable, since the Dark Stone wasn´t powered up yet. After a few minutes, they arrived at the part of Mt. Pajamaja that was covered with snow. As they were about to enter the area they had fought Mammoshka in, they spotted the human standing in the open together with his robot, typing on what seemed to be a remote control. The Dark Stone could be seen hovering between them.

They didn´t seem to have noticed the heroes, so they snuck up to the ramp leading to the open area, where they stayed low in order to discuss their next course of actions.

"Alright, how do we knock them out?" Mario asked, trying to not alarm the busy duo.

"This might sound like a dumb idea, but I´d suggest that you brothers simply charge at them, while we give you some backup," Kamek whispered.

"So, what you think is that they won´t have time to adapt to the circumstances, right?" Starlow asked, thinking ahead.

"Correct. I think this is the best way to go," the Magikoopa replied.

Luigi was about to reply and demand another plan, when suddenly, his nose tickled. He tried to supress it at first, but the urge to sneeze was stronger than his willpower.

"Ah…Ah…" was everything he could say, and the others realised what was about to happen.

"Oh no…not AGAIN, and in this location as well…" Dreambert said, remembering what lead to the fight with the guardian of Mt. Pajamaja.

"He´ll blow our cover together with his nose, so you guys better attack NOW!" Kamek told them, and both brothers nodded. They jumped onto the ramp and ran up towards their enemies, with Luigi letting a loud "ACHOOO" out on their way there.

Starlow, Dreambert and Kamek hovered out of their cover, while John stayed safe. Nico and Nicbot looked up when they heard Luigi sneezing, and Nico was clearly shocked to see them alive. And he didn´t have time to react to them, because Mario and Luigi were closing in fast. They had almost reached them, when something happened NOBODY could have seen coming. All of a sudden, Bowser in his Koopa Clown Car landed between the opposing fractions, knocking both Mario and Luigi as well as Nico and Nicbot back.

"KAMEK! There you are, you little traitor. How dare you leaving me, just to meet up with my archenemy?" he roared after his landing.

"K-K-King Bowser?" the Magikoopa asked in disbelief.

"Of course it´s me, you fool. Now get over here so we can pummel Mario, and then you´ll come with me so I can think of a punishment for you," the King of the Koopas ordered him.

"Why would you start a fight against us now?" Starlow asked him, anger welling up inside of her.

"Because of Mario, of course. Now get over here, you lazy spell caster," he replied while looking at Kamek.

Nico stood up and used Bowser´s presence to slowly walk away with the Dark Stone into the direction of the mountain´s summit, with everyone else failing to notice him. His robot followed, leaving the heroes alone with their problem.

"I…" Kamek began, but Starlow decided to cut him off.

"Don´t worry, Kamek. We can understand if you want to aid him. We´ll find a way to stop Nico from powering up the Dark Stone," she told him.

"Thank you, Starlow. And you know what?" he asked everyone and got his scepter ready. "I´ve had it with this tyranny. You guys showed me what friendship is, and I´m sick of being bossed around by someone who couldn´t find his own tail in the dark without a flashlight and written instructions. I may have been your caretaker, Bowser, but now that you´ve grown up, I can see that the Koopa Troop only follows your commands because they are afraid of you, not because they believe in you or something like that. And I think that it is about time that I went my own way. Mario, Luigi, Starlow and Dreambert, I´ll help you. From now on, we shall be a team!"

"WHAT? You are going to pay for this," Bowser growled and jumped out of his Clown Car.

"Are you sure about this, Kamek?" Luigi asked the Magikoopa.

"There is no turning back now. Once Ki…I mean Bowser is enraged, he will only calm down if he gets defeated or if he reaches his goal. Prepare to fight, my friends," he replied.

"Well then…there is nothing better than a classic, I guess. C´mon, Bowser, let´s do this," Mario said, and everyone prepared for battle.

"I´ll crush you first, and then I´ll take the Dark Stone all for myself," Bowser announced.

Bowser started the fight with spewing a fireball towards the heroes, which they avoided by sidestepping. Mario and Luigi then both jumped towards the Koopa King and both double-jumped onto his head. They would have gone for a third jump, but their foe hid into his shell, with the spikes on it hurting the Mario Bros., forcing them to return to their friends.

Bowser then spun towards them, but Mario and Luigi hit him back into a wall using their hammers. He bumped into a wall and started spinning in a different direction, and every time he hit a wall, the angle he came from changed. Over time, he became so fast that the brothers were forced to continuously jump and sprint around in order to not get hit.

"This is going nowhere," Kamek mumbled and lifted his wand.

He transformed into his red form and created a giant broom on the battlefield, which he directed to kick Bowser into a wall. The King of the Koopas was going so fast after being hit by the broom, that he crashed into the wall and slightly drilled himself into it, forcing him to stop. Bowser then left his shell again and freed himself from the wall. He turned around to face the heroes again, just in time for his face to get hit by Luigi, who had been flung at him using a Slingsniper.

The sudden impact caused Bowser to stagger, and Starlow and Dreambert fired a love beam at him. It didn´t seem to affect him as much as Nico, though, because when Kamek shot a magical bolt at him, he was able to sidestep it. Luigi returned to the rest of the group, and Bowser leaned back. Starlow looked at the plumbers and slightly increased her altitude.

"Come on, we have trained this one more than enough times," she told them, and started flying in a circle above them. They grabbed her feet and she flew up high in order to dodge Bowser´s stream of fire, but their enemy had learned a thing, surprisingly.

As he spewed out fire, he redirected it into the direction of the trio, catching them off guard. The fire burnt them and dealt a big amount of damage to them, as well as causing Starlow to fall down to the ground in shock. The Mario Bros., hanging on her feet, crashed-landed on the ground together with their Star Sprite friend.

Bowser wasn´t done with them, however, as he performed a Slide Punch and knocked both Mario and Luigi, who were sitting on the ground after their unintentional landing, into a wall, taking them both out of battle. Starlow, despite being roasted by the flames, was able to slowly hover towards Dreambert and Kamek.

"Starlow! Are you alright?" Dreambert asked her, worried.

"I´m better off than Mario and Luigi, I guess," she replied, her voice filled with pain.

"Here, that should help a little, but you will have to go and see Dr. Toadley soon," Kamek said, and transformed into his white form. He then healed the Star Sprite, who noticed that he killed the pain with it as well.

"Thank you, Kamek. That was quite a surprise…" she said to the Magikoopa.

"What now?" Dreambert asked them as Bowser stomped towards them with a smug grin on his face.

"Go for the brothers, I´ll distract him," Kamek replied and transformed into his normal form again. He started summoning spiked iron balls above Bowser, who ducked into his shell in order to avoid taking damage. Meanwhile, Starlow and Dreambert hovered towards Mario and Luigi, whom they fed 1-Up Mushrooms. The brothers both woke up again and saw their friends, whom they gave a thankful smile before analysing the battle´s current state.

Kamek was still busy keeping Bowser locked in place, so Mario and Luigi ran up to his shell and both took out a fire flower. They transformed into their respective Fire-form and started throwing fireballs into Bowser´s shell. It eventually forced the Koopa King out of it, allowing Kamek to land two iron balls onto his head. Bowser became dizzy, and Mario and Luigi initiated the final blow with a Falling Star attack.

Luigi took out the star and threw it into the sky, where it increased in size, with Starlow hovering towards it in order to connect the smaller stars, which spawned next to the brothers thanks to the big star´s presence. The star glowed green, so Luigi tossed some of the smaller stars up to Starlow, who collected them behind the big one. The star eventually blinked red, so Luigi stopped throwing, and as soon as it turned red completely, Mario repeated the procedure. The star eventually turned green again, and they kept going until they had enough stars up there for Starlow to form three balls of stars behind the big one. The big star flew upwards, with the other stars following it. They then came down on Bowser´s head, and the hit of the third star-ball finally took Bowser out.

Starlow returned to her friends, who were relieved that the battle was finally over. They had wasted enough time battling with the Koopa King.

"Now that that is taken care of, we should go for Nico next," Dreambert suggested as they all were reunited. John hovered out of his cover as well.

"Speaking of him…where is he?" the Pi'illo asked the other ones. They all looked around, and found that the human was nowhere to be found, as well as Nicbot.

"Don´t tell me they made their getaway while we were busy with Bowser…" Starlow said, annoyed.

"Looks like a wedding never is or will be easy…" Dreambert added, trying to lift the mood a little.

"Maybe it is because of us, we seem to attract trouble all the time, even as babies," Mario said, remembering the troubles they had with the Shroobs, or the constant kidnapping tries by Kamek.

"I think I was part of that trouble, now wasn´t I?" Kamek said, as he remembered all of these adventures as well.

"Well, we got one good thing out of that: our lives never grew boring," Luigi added, with all of them chuckling.

"Yeah…that reminds me: has Nico ever told us anything about his past? Besides what led to his current state, I mean," Starlow wondered.

"I don´t think so, but what I do know is that we have to stop him before this ends in a disaster," Dreambert reminded them. They all nodded, and Starlow saw footsteps in the snow leading to the mountains summit.

"He´s up there, I guess," she told the others.

"We had deactivated the Warp Pipe-system on the island once we found out about Dark Nico´s return, just as a safety measure. But now, it looks like he has no way to go anymore. We have to make this the final face-off," Dreambert said.

"If that´s the case: heal up, everyone. We have a human and a robot to take down," Mario said.

Everyone replenished their health and energy, and as soon as everyone was good to go, or as good as a burned Star Sprite can feel, at least, they set off to reach the mountain´s summit in order to stop Dark Nico once and for all.

* * *

 **Well then, what would a Mario &Luigi adventure be without a fight against Bowser? A bad one, I guess. So after Kamek has joined Mario and Co., and after they defeated Bowser yet again, they still aim to stop Nico. Will they succeed in the next chapter? Or am I like "nope, there are still a few things in my mind that I want to bring in here"? Either way, Dark Nico and Nicbot are ready for them.**

 **Sorry that this is coming out that late, but…I had struggles with finding the motivation to write. I´ll try and write more in the next days, most likely because positive feedback is like a boost to me. At this point, I want to thank the other guest who reviewed on this one for their feedback. I can try to make it like you want, but I don´t know if I´ll find difficulties in this or not. No promises here.**

 **Aaaaaaaaaaaaand last but not least: Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	10. Awaiting: Mercy plea

"Are you sure that your plan will work out?" Nicbot asked his master, as they stood on the mountain´s summit, the Dark Stone hovering between them.

"Come on, has one of my plans ever failed?" Nico asked back, a remote control in his hands.

"Well, you might remember that one plan, with taking over the Mushroom Kingdom. The one nine months ago…" the robot replied.

"THAT one was ruined by some unfortunate events I couldn´t have foreseen, so it doesn´t count. Do you have anything else to say?" the human said and put the remote control into his pocket.

"Well…what about the plans to bury them in the Dark Stone Cave, defeating them in a battle or finish watching the Dr. Mario series?" Nicbot asked.

"They had outside help at the cave, I DID defeat them back in Bowser´s Castle, and you do know how sensitive I am about the last one…" Nico answered.

"That´s why I´m asking," the robot said and chuckled.

"Ugh…let´s discuss this topic never ever again, and wait for them here. They will return to the castle, there is no way that they won´t," Nico said confidently, and created two light blue spheres that he started joggling with.

* * *

Mario and Co. reached the mountains summit a few minutes after their battle with Bowser. The King of the Koopas would be knocked out for a while now, so they didn´t have to worry about him. They stood in front of the whirlwind, which would boost Mario and Luigi up to where they assumed Nico retreated to. The heroes looked at each other and nodded, and then Mario and Luigi performed a Spin Jump into the whirlwind. They flew upwards and landed on top of the summit, with their floating friends following.

What they saw were their enemies, the human one joggling with two blue spheres and the robotic one trying to keep a rock in the air by shooting at it. They seemed to have been doing this for a long time now, as they heard Nico counting.

"Ninety-one, ninety-two, ninety-three…" he counted, focused. When he reached 'ninety-nine', Mario spoke up.

"Nico! Stop running away and fight 'til the end this time!" he shouted, causing the human to look at them in surprise and letting the spheres fall to the ground, where they exploded. The human first looked at them, then at the place where his spheres had landed and then at the group again. Nicbot let the rock fall to the ground and looked at them as well.

"Do you know how close I was to breaking my personal record?" Nico asked them angrily.

"I bet as close as you are to being defeated now," Starlow challenged him.

"That´d be an eternity, so probably not. One-hundred was the best I managed to do until now, and now you´ve stopped me from achieving something AGAIN. Do you hate me that much that I am not even allowed to beat myself in my own challenge?" the human replied.

"Well…you still are a villain that is trying to take over everything, and you tried to kill us already, so…I guess that qualifies you as someone we have to stop at all cost. And I guess stopping you from feeling great is a part of that," Dreambert explained.

"Blah blah blah, can we get to business now? I´m tired of waiting, you know," Nicbot complained.

"Oh…right. Well then, Nico and Nicbot, are you ready to fight against us for the last time?" Mario asked them, and the five fighters of them took battle stance.

"Well…" Nico started and took out his remote control," I´d be ready to fight, but if you defeated me, everyone else in the castle would die."

"Are you bluffing right now?" Luigi asked him, sceptical.

"It´s up to you right now: either you go back to the castle in order to stop my surprise from knocking everyone out and then killing them afterwards; or you fight me right now and have the entire population of Pi'illo Island and every visitor, excluding you, killed right away. Oh, and decide quickly, because my surprise is at work NOW," he calmly explained and typed a few buttons on the control.

The heroes wondered if he was joking or not, but Starlow suddenly heard Light Nico´s voice in her mind: "Go to the castle…he is serious…"

Nico seemed to not feel good as she heard their ally speak to her, but he soon recovered from it. The Star Sprite now was certain that he would go as far as to kill an entire population in order to reach his goals.

"Guys! We need to return to the castle!" she yelled at her friends, who looked at her, but then nodded and walked backwards towards the edge of the summit.

"This isn´t over, Nico. We´ll eventually catch up to you again and defeat you for good," Mario said angrily.

"Alright then, but don´t take too long," Nico taunted them by telling them these last words happily and waving at them.

The brothers jumped down again. They were followed by the rest of the group, and they quickly made their way back to the castle again. On the way there, Kamek and Starlow levitated the unconscious Bowser with them and dropped him off behind the castle.

When they ran around the castle, they heard screaming and weaponry firing. They hurried towards the entrance to find sleeping Pi'illos, and as they approached them, Nightmare Orbs left their bodies to hover into the air, just to travel towards Mount Pajamaja. They looked up and saw more of them coming out of the castle.

"What in the world did he send down here to perform all of this?" Kamek wondered.

"I don´t even want to know…" Luigi replied and shivered a bit.

"Enough time wasted! Let´s go in and get rid of that thing, whatever it may be!" Mario told them and ran into the castle, the other ones following him.

When they entered the castle, Dreambert realised what Nico´s surprise was. They saw about everyone, Pi'illos and guests, lying on the ground, sleeping. In the middle of the main hall hovered something very familiar.

A Pi'illodium, larger than the Pi'illodium they had fought a year ago, with three wings each on both its left and right side, turned around and faced them. In the middle of its body were three purple points, on each body segment one, hinting towards its weaponry. It fired a dark blue ray from one of the segments at them, which hit John, causing him to start sleeping. Nico must have modified this Pi'illodium so it fitted his needs.

"No way…that is Pi'illodium PRIME!" Dreambert shouted.

"PRIME? So that basically is the strongest Pi'illodium that exists?" Starlow asked him.

"Unfortunately, yes. Nico must have stolen it in Somnom Woods, after he escaped from us in Nightmare Somnom Woods," the Pi'illo Prince assumed.

"Mission: Accomplished. Next Mission: Destroying Targets," the machine told them, and hovered towards them.

"We have no choice but to fight it. If we let this thing go, a lot of people will die for nothing," Starlow reminded them, and everyone prepared to fight the Pi'illodium.

The Pi'illodium opened the fight with aiming at the heroes, with three purple dots appearing at where it would shoot. The first ones appeared on Mario and Luigi, and the third one on Dreambert. The next ones showed up next to Luigi, on Kamek, and below Starlow. It then changed the angle of its wings, so they all faced forwards, and then opened fire.

Mario and Luigi jumped over the shots aimed at them, while Dreambert dropped down to the ground in order to avoid the third shot. Kamek then created a shield in front of him in order to block the next shot, and the group then went for a counterattack.

Mario took out a Bye-Bye Cannon, in which he and Luigi jumped, just to be copied and shot out into the air. Two copies each and the brothers themselves were launched out of the cannon, with the first three being Mario and his copies and the other three Luigi with his respective ones.

Mario and his clones landed on the top wing on the Pi'illodium´s left side, causing cracks to appear on them. They bounced back into the air after they landed, and Luigi and his clones landed on the wing as well, causing more cracks to appear on it. He and his copies bounced into the air again, where they met with Mario. They then stacked onto each other and started spinning, just to fall down towards the Pi'illodium again. Luigi and his copies were first in line, and one after another, they landed on the damaged wing, the brother at the bottom jumping towards their friends after they landed. They repeated doing this, until Mario landed on the wing as the last attacker, causing it to break completely. The clones disappeared, and Mario and Luigi gave each other a high-five.

While all of this happened, Kamek started summoning his magical shapes and sent them against the Pi'illodium. While the shapes confused and damaged the machine, Starlow and Dreambert fired a love beam at the bottom wing on its right side, destroying it and thereby making it unusable.

"Enemies resisting. More pressure needed…" the Pi'illodium said, and shifted into its Hammer form.

The machine´s eyes blinked green, just before it increased its altitude significantly. It almost reached the room´s ceiling, before it dashed down towards Luigi in order to smash him. The green plumber mistimed his hammer strike which could have countered the attack, and the Pi'illodium flattened him. The machine then then started hovering again, revealing a knocked out Luigi, and gained some distance between the heroes and itself, where it shifted into its normal form again. It then let its head spin in the air, so that six Mini Pi'illoids could hover out of its body. The head then attached itself back to the body.

The Pi'illodium then aimed at them again and fired rays at them in a line from left to right, then from middle to left and then from right to middle. The group successfully dodged the rays and went for counterattacking the machine again, with Starlow and Dreambert firing another beam at the bottom wing on the Pi'illodium´s left side, destroying it. Mario on the other hand fed his brother a 1-Up Mushroom, bringing him back into battle. Kamek took the last step and shifted into his green form, boosting the group´s defensive stats after his transformation.

Pi'illodium PRIME was forced to lower its altitude a bit, due to half of the wings being taken out. This didn´t stop it from attacking, however, as the heroes soon found out. It hovered backwards and started its chasing mode, forcing the group to run away from it.

"Uncertainly rising. Foes need to disappear now," it said, and began chasing them.

Since nobody wanted any of the inhabitants and visitors of Pi'illo Island to be hurt, they ran out of the castle, with the Pi'illodium flying right behind them, firing missiles at them every now and then. It tried to ram Mario once between the salvos, but the plumber in red managed to jump over it, forcing it to keep chasing them. The battlers ran around the castle several times, but Pi'illodium PRIME was a lot faster than its normal counterpart. It slowly closed the distance on them, until it almost managed to knock one of them over. That was when Kamek raised his wand and cast a spell on the group, increasing their speed for a limited time.

They managed to run away from the machine, which eventually gave up chasing them and flew back into the castle, with the heroes quickly following it as soon as they saw their foe giving up. The two parties met each other in the castle again, where the fight continued.

"How ´bout one of our older moves?" Mario asked his brother and took out a Yoo Who Cannon.

"Why not? It has been so long…almost feels like nostalgia," the green plumber replied with a little smile.

Mario activated the attack, and eight barrels spawned above the brothers. They landed on the plumbers, and they disappeared inside of them, just for 3 clones each and the brothers themselves to appear in the eight barrels.

"How do these clones even appear?" Starlow whispered to Kamek.

"Don´t question it, or he´d have to explain that whole thing somehow…" the Magikoopa replied.

"If you say so…but who is 'he'?" she wondered.

"Shh…just forget that I said anything, alright? Good," Kamek told her, and focused on the battle again.

"Man, that was close…I almost did the Fourth Wall break in front of everyone here…" he thought.

In the meantime, one barrel after another lifted itself into the air (because, you know, reasons) and had a fuse lit on its end, firing the brother (or copy) hiding in the barrel against the Pi'illodium, damaging the three remaining wings as well as the machine itself.

Starlow and Dreambert then created six love spheres and threw them at the damaged wings, which finally put them out of order as well. With no wings left working, the Pi'illodium dropped to the ground and changed its expression into the sad and weak one.

"Query: self-worth," the machine said, and Kamek used his magic to increase the groups attack stats.

The Mini Pi'illoids, which had been hovering in the background up until now, flew next to the Pi'illodium. Two each of them sent a repairing ray at the top wings, while the other ones did the same thing to the middle ones instead. They then hovered backwards again in order to cool down.

Mario now took out a Jet-Board, and he and Luigi gained some distance between them and Pi'illodium PRIME. Luigi lied down face first on the board, with Mario standing on it with his hammer ready. Luigi then started paddling in order to speed up, with the engine of the board activating after gaining a certain amount of speed, increasing the speed even further. When the board was right next to their foe, Mario swung his hammer and dealt massive damage to it. The board stopped, and they ran back towards their friends.

Luigi then took out a Dropchopper, and he and Mario once again ran far away from the machine. He then released the flying device, and they ran underneath it. Luigi was the first one to jump and grab hold of the chopper, and Mario soon jumped and grabbed Luigi´s feet. The chopper then flew upwards and nearly touched the ceiling, until it was right above Pi'illodium PRIME. Luigi let go, and he and Mario landed on top of the machine, spinning. It took a big load of damage again, and Mario and Luigi jumped of it and returned to their friends.

Kamek returned into his normal form again, and summoned three Thwomps above the machine, which fell down on it and dealt even more damage, while Starlow and Dreambert fired another love beam at it. What stopped them from firing it until the Pi'illodium was destroyed was the fact that it defended itself. It fired to rays at them, which they dodged, forcing them to stop the beams.

"Activate: regret and Repair Overload…" the machine announced, and the six Mini Pi'illoids positioned themselves next to the six wings. They then turned red and sent a ray at the wings, instantly repairing them and overheating themselves in the process. Pi'illodium PRIME started hovering again and shifted its expression into the normal battling one.

It then used its six wings and bashed its overheated assistants towards the heroes. Mario and Luigi both deflected one of them each, while two of them hit the surprised Starlow and Dreambert, knocking them on the ground and making them dizzy. Kamek created a shield in front of him which the projectiles flew into and exploded.

Mario and Luigi both played badminton with the Pi'illodium, the Mini Pi'illoids being the shuttlecocks. Everyone hit the projectiles back several times, until Pi'illodium PRIME missed them, causing the Pi'illoids to fall to the ground beneath it and explode there, knocking the machine up and letting it fall to the ground again.

The brothers used this time to set up a Slingsniper attack, with Mario pulling Luigi, who was being used as a projectile, far back. As soon as the machine got up again, he fired his brother at it, dealing a good amount of damage to it. It seemed to have been enough, as sparks started to appear all over its body.

"Boot: Self-destruct," the machine announced, and prepared to blow itself up.

The three remaining fighters panicked, as the explosion would most likely destroy everyone in this room, which would be almost everyone on this island. Kamek created both magical shapes and Thwomps in order to damage the machine, while Mario and Luigi used a Star Rocket and collected stars, with them landing on Pi'illodium PRIME together with the collected stars. The additional damage was enough for the machine´s operating system to stop working, and the heroes defeated it with their combined attack.

"Query?" was the last thing the Pi'illodium asked, before it shut down and stopped hovering.

"Is it…done? We did it, right?" Luigi asked the other ones, out of breath.

"Seems like it. We prevented another catastrophe from happening," Kamek said.

"Well then…let us look after everyone, maybe there are a few Pi'illodium PRIME didn´t put to sleep," Mario suggested.

They cured Starlow and Dreambert´s dizzy state with Refreshing Herbs first, and informed them about the won battle. They then checked the whole castle for people being awake, and they soon found someone. In the infirmary, hiding behind the door, they found none other than Dr. Toadley.

"Dr. Toadley! Are you alright?" Starlow asked him.

"Can you answer that question yourself? I think you can. Are you okay yourself? You certainly aren´t," he replied as he saw the burnt Star Sprite.

"She has been roasted by Bowser, who showed up out of nowhere. He lies behind the castle, sleeping due to being defeated in combat," Dreambert explained.

"We have also taken care of the Pi'illodium unit attacking the castle. Is there anyone else not sleeping or are you the only one who got away?" Mario added.

"Is that good to hear? Of course it is. Should you check on Princess Peach and Eldream? I think you should. And will you stay here, Starlow? Indeed you will," Toadley told them.

"Alright, thank you, doc. You guys go and check their rooms, while I´ll be busy waking the entire castle up…which will take a while," Kamek ordered them, and flew out of the room again.

Starlow and Dreambert stayed in the infirmary, while Mario and Luigi made their way to the hidden staircase leading to the private rooms. They ran upstairs and knocked at the door of Peach´s room, and after nobody answered, they opened it and stepped inside. As soon as Mario was in the room, Luigi saw an umbrella hitting Mario on the head from behind the door.

"Oh my…Mario!" Princess Peach shouted as she realised who she suspected being an attacker.

"If that´s how we will be greeted every time we come to you from now on, then you´ll need a new hero rescuing you"…" Mario complained as he rubbed the back of his head, while Luigi couldn´t help but chuckle a bit.

"Oh, I´m so sorry. I thought that you were someone who wanted to harm me," Peach explained.

"Turns out that we weren´t, and that you are still alright. I guess that includes Éldream as well," Luigi replied with a smile.

* * *

"Unbelievable…they managed to beat Pi'illodium PRIME!" Nico shouted angrily and threw his remote control on the ground, crushing it under his shoe after that.

"Hey, that means that I won the bet. Which means that I´ll get one day off whenever I want to," Nicbot replied cheerfully.

"Ugh…but only once, remember that. At least we achieved what he wanted," Nico said and looked at the Dark Stone, fully powered up and ready to fulfil one´s wishes.

"Well then," he said and grabbed the Dark Stone. "It is time for Step 3 of my plan…"

* * *

 **So the heroes stopped Pi'illodium PRIME from destroying every living in the castle, but Nico´s plan advances. What is he trying to do? And have the heroes the power to stop him? We will see, eventually.**

 **Little information for you guys: Don´t expect a new chapter any time soon, because I´ll be abroad for two weeks soon, which means that I won´t be able to write anything (except I could write it on paper and then copy that onto my computer once I´m back, but nah…that´d be too much work I´d have to do :p)**

 **But still: Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	11. The plan of the soul

**I am finally back, hooray! And that can only mean one thing…NEW CHAPTER!**

… **okay, I´ve calmed down a bit now. Enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

"Hahaha, finally I am powerful enough," Nico said with a grin, looking at Nicbot, who held the Dark Stone in his hands.

"Yeah, and your wish will allow us to go on with your plan. But I think we should put your power to good use first," the robot replied.

"Hm…what exactly do you mean by that?" the human asked.

"Well…how about a plan we can fall back on, in order to obliterate them when we are cornered or something like that? I think we could use our fluffy prisoner in the Nightmare World for that as well…" Nicbot answered.

Nico thought about it, and Nicbot could tell that his master was already on something that could fulfil the requirements for a way to obliterate the heroes, who had already bothered them more than enough. Soon, a grin crossed his face as he worked out a plan.

"Yes, I think I have an idea…" he told Nicbot, and went on with explaining everything. Dark Nico knew that Light Nico couldn´t warn the heroes anymore, as he had used up some of his strength in order to warn them before, meaning that he simply weakened himself while helping the dark soul with their plan. And now, with the wish that the Dark Stone had granted Nicbot, he had enough Dark Power in order to fully control Nico and use it through the human´s body. And his own wish initiated the next step of his plan…

* * *

Starlow, Dreambert and Dr. Toadley were in the infirmary of Pi'illo Castle, where the doctor treated Starlow´s wounds she had received in the fight against Bowser. He used a special ointment he was always carrying with him, as she found out.

"Could you call this the 'Miracle Toadley Cure' for problems with your skin? I think you can. Does this deal with any exterior damage you have suffered? You can bet that it does," he told them, while he applied it to the skin of the Star Sprite.

"Hey…that doesn´t even hurt," she noticed, and the doctor nodded.

"Are you right about that? Yes, you are. Will it take long for the ointment to work? Surely it won´t," he replied.

"I´m glad that you are going to be alright, Starlow," Dreambert said, relieved.

"I think everyone is glad about that, but I´m worrying about Nico…" she replied, concerned about the young human.

"No need to, we will stop Dark Nico before he can carry his plan out," he assured her, but she shook her head.

"That´s not what I meant. Do you remember what the consequences for Nico were after Dark Nico had pulled him through his evil plan back then?" she answered.

"Um…yes I do, but I don´t really understand…" the Pi'illo Prince said, still confused.

"What I want to say is: I have a bad feeling telling me that Nico will be in a worse condition than the last time after we had restored him back to his former self," she told him.

"Wait, do you mean…" he started, and she nodded.

"Yes, I think we will need to watch over him once this nightmare is over," she said as she felt that he shared her thoughts. If they were right, then they would have to protect Nico from someone even more dangerous to him than Dark Nico.

* * *

"So, now that we know that you are fine, princess, I think that we should focus on Nico again," Mario told Princess Peach.

"Yes, you need to stop him before he can inflict any greater harm on anyone. Please, be careful while you are out there," she begged them.

"Don´t worry, we´ve always managed to win, and we have always been fine," Mario assured her.

"Shouldn´t we look after Eldream as well? Maybe he has an idea on what Nico might be doing next," Luigi suggested.

"Hm…maybe you are right. See you later, princess," the red plumber said, and Mario and Luigi left her room.

"Until later, and take care," she said, and closed the door to her room again.

* * *

Dr. Toadley just finished treating Starlow´s wounds, when all of a sudden, a Pi'illo Master hurried into the room, seemingly upset. He whispered something into Dreambert´s ear, who looked shocked.

"Are you sure?" he asked the Pi'illo, who nodded.

"…I think I know what Dark Nico´s plan is, and I don´t think that we have any time to waste. If we don´t stop him right now, he could win. Let´s search Mario, Luigi, and the rest; we need to go to the Pi'illo Temple immediately," he told the Star Sprite. She of course wanted an explanation, but she figured that he would be able to explain everything on the way there.

"Thank you, Dr. Toadley. Until later," Starlow said to the doctor, and she and Dreambert hurried out of the room.

On the way to the secret staircase, they ran into Kamek, who seemed like he was heading towards the infirmary.

"Oh, you two. I was going to look after you, but it seems like you are fine again, Starlow," he told them.

"Yeah, thank you. We were going to go to Mario and Luigi. Dreambert might have figured out what Dark Nico´s plan is. Prepare to leave in a few minutes, okay?" Starlow replied.

"Alright then, I´ll wait at the castle´s entrance," he said, and flew off again.

Starlow and Dreambert continued their path and soon reached the staircase. They entered it and hovered upstairs, and upon arriving on the second floor, they heard voices coming from Eldream´s room. They found the door to be open, with the brothers standing inside the room, talking to the Pi'illo Elder hovering in front of them.

"And you still haven´t found my Dreambunny?" he asked them, seemingly worried about his pet.

"Sadly, no. Maybe he is holding him captive somewhere on Nightmare Mt. Pajamaja, but we honestly don´t know," Mario replied. Dreambert knocked and cleared his throat, with the trio turning around in response.

"Prince Dreambert, you are fine! That´s good to see," Eldream greeted him.

"Yes I am, Eldream, thank you. We came here in order to tell you guys about something very important," he responded.

"What is it, my prince?" Eldream asked, curious.

"I think Dark Nico might try to create the Sleep Stone," Dreambert went on. Eldream was seemingly shocked, while Starlow wanted to know more.

"Are you sure? If that is true, you will have to travel to the Pi'illo Temple immediately," the Pi'illo Elder said after a short moment of silence.

"The Sleep Stone? What is that?" Starlow wanted to know.

"I was going to do that with the others, Eldream. Come on, guys, let us head to the Pi'illo Temple. I´ll explain everything on the way there," Dreambert replied. The other ones looked at each other, and then nodded.

"Okay, let´s go, then," Mario said, and after saying "Goodbye" to Eldream, they headed to the entrance of the castle, where Kamek waited for them, seemingly impatient. John was hovering next to him, ready to leave as well.

"I´ll come with you, I feel like you will have to enter the Dream World or Nightmare World in order to stop Nico," he told them.

"Now that we are gathered here, where will we go now?" the Magikoopa wanted to know.

"To the Pi'illo Temple," Dreambert said, and hurried outside, with the other ones following him.

"So, could you please explain to us what the Sleep Stone is, and how it is a part of Dark Nico´s plan?" Starlow demanded after they left the castle and headed south.

"Sure. You see, a long time ago, we were given the task to guard both the Dream Stone and the Dark Stone. It would be bad if someone stole one of them, but the power these stones wielded could be overcome. We were also told, however, to never let someone steal both of them at the same time, because they could create the Sleep Stone with them. The power of the Sleep Stone…both the power of pure Dream Energy and Nightmare Energy combined…I can´t even imagine what an evil entity could do with this amount of power," he explained to them, while they reached Mushrise Park and turned east, reaching Somnom Woods shortly afterwards.

"Aha, so we know what Dark Nico could be after. But how does he want to create it, or use it?" Kamek asked.

"In order to create it, he will have to shatter them and use magic in order to assemble them together, creating the Sleep Stone. And powering it up…I forgot how that works. Hopefully he won´t get that far, so we would still have a chance of stopping him," Dreambert replied.

"Okay, but that leaves one question: how does he want to create it without the Dream Stone? I thought it had turned into a Dream Coin and was shattered afterwards by the Zeekeeper," Starlow wondered. Dreambert sighed.

"Well, to tell you the truth: the coins which came from the giant Dream Coin are still a part of the Dream Stone, and after the Dream Coin had disappeared again, the Zeekeeper collected all of the coins which came from it and brought it back to his Dream World in the Pi'illo Temple. Don´t ask me how Dark Nico was able to find that one out, I have no idea. But the coins should still be in that Dream World, and that should be where Nico is headed right now," the Pi'illo Prince told them as they hurried through the woods.

"Okay, but how could he use all of these coins? I mean, he can´t just sit in the Dream World the Zeekeeper sits in and convert all of the coins into the Dream Stone or something like that, right?" the Star Sprite asked.

"He could shatter the coins and collect the Dream Stone Essence that would remain. But even in that state, he would either need the magic of the Zeekeeper or his magic combined with a strong, natural type of energy…" Dreambert listed the options the human had, and thought about it. Suddenly, he realised what Dark Nico could use.

"The lava at the top of Mt. Pajamaja! I´ve always felt a familiar energy coming from it, but if I remember correctly, the stones were forged in the lava up there. He´ll most likely bring the essence up there and recreate the Dream Stone, so he can create the Sleep Stone afterwards," he told them his theory.

"Hm…I think our plan is fairly simple: we´ll wait for them to leave the Dream World in the Pi'illo Temple and defeat them," Kamek suggested.

"This could work out, and even if they escape, we know where to look for them," Starlow said, confident.

"Alright then, we are closing in on the temple," Dreambert announced.

They reached the elevator bringing them up to the giant gap, which they had to cross with the help of the Pi'illo Masters on their last adventure on this island. Soon, they reached it, and the platform brought them to the other side. The Pi'illo Temple was close now, and Dreambert and Starlow could feel the darkness disrupting the otherwise calming aura in this area. Nico was here, without a doubt. They closed in on the building, a big, round temple with an open entrance and a Pi'illo sign above the entrance. Inside stood the Ultibed on the Dreampoint, and a Dream Portal was hovering above it.

"How can he open Dream Portals?" Mario wondered.

"I guess he had the same wish as Antasma back then, being able to access the Dream World at any time," Dreambert assumed.

"So, let´s position ourselves around the portal and the entrance, so they can´t escape once they come out of there," Kamek ordered the others.

Mario and Luigi stood near the entrance, while Starlow, Dreambert and Kamek positioned themselves behind the portal. John waited outside near the entrance, to be safe. They were ready, and if they couldn´t stop Dark Nico, everything would be over.

* * *

 **Dark Nico´s plan seems to be revealed, and the heroes are trying to stop him before it is too late. Will they stop him, or is he going to destroy everyone´s hopes? Find out soon…hopefully.**

 **So, why is this coming out that lately? First, I´ve been abroad for two weeks. Then, school started again, and so on…but now I´ve finally managed to write this chapter.**

 **As always: Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	12. A gigantic battle

**Is that what I think it is? Yes, it can only be a new chapter! Hooray! The flu may have me prevented from going to school, but it won´t prevent me from writing this. Guess I am some sort of a…"sicko"…I see myself out…**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Out of the Dream Portal jumped Nico and Nicbot, with the human holding a bottle filled with something familiar. It was the Dream Stone´s essence, which meant that Dreambert was right with his assumption. As Nico landed, he saw Mario and Luigi waiting at the entrance, which sent a look of pure shock to his face. He instinctively stepped to the side, just as Starlow and Dreambert fired a love beam at him. The beam passed through between Nicbot and Nico, as well as Mario and Luigi. The portal above the Ultibed closed.

"So, looks like you´ve found out what I am planning, huh?" Nico asked them, angry.

"We won´t let you create the Sleep Stone, or even let you use it," Dreambert replied.

The trio behind the Ultibed hovered to the left, forcing Nico and Nicbot to change their position to the area in the back left of the temple. The five heroes then slowly closed in on the enemy duo, leaving them no place to manoeuvre.

"Give up, we have you with your backs to the wall…literally," Starlow said.

Nico and Nicbot looked around, but the only exit seemed to be the entrance, which would mean battling through them. Unless…

"You are right about the part with 'our backs to the wall'. The question is: for how long?" Nico asked with a grin, and the wall behind him and his robot shattered into pieces, creating another exit. The two of them quickly jumped through it, and started running towards the exit of Somnom Woods again. The five were curious about how that happened, when Starlow remembered Nico´s red spheres.

"Ugh, that guy has way too many abilities in order to escape a sticky situation. After them!" she yelled, and she and the others started their pursuit.

After picking up John, they reached the platform which had brought them to the temple, and saw Nico flying on Nicbot´s shoulders across the gap. The six of them jumped onto the platform and crossed over, just to run after them again. Thankfully, Nicbot seemed to only be able to fly slowly, probably because he had his master on him as well. Nico looked back, and spotted the heroes coming closer. After telling Nicbot something, the robot turned around and flew backwards, firing missiles at them while doing so. Nico looked back and gave him directions, while also focusing on something.

Eventually, Nicbot increased his altitude, and Nico opened a Nightmare Portal above them, which they flew through, the portal closing afterwards. The heroes stopped, knowing that they had escaped yet another time.

"Great, and what now?" Luigi asked.

"There is only one place where Nico can fulfil his plan, and that is Mt. Pajamaja. We need to get there ASAP," Dreambert told them.

"Mt. Pajamaja? That´ll take FOREVER to get there," Mario complained.

"Hm…maybe we could use the Warp-Pipe-System to get up there. If I remember correctly, there should be a way to reactivate it from here…" Dreambert mumbled, and hovered towards the Warp-Pipe standing next to the gap. After a few seconds of hovering around it, he landed next to it and began pressing a few certain points on the pipe. After he was done, a _click_ could be heard.

"Done," he told them, smiling.

"Well then, we have to time to waste," Kamek said, and they all gathered on the pipe. It took them to the part of the mountain where they had found the Pajamaja Rock Frame in their first adventure on this island.

"Why are we here?" Starlow asked Dreambert.

"Even if Nico can travel between Nightmare Worlds, it´ll take him some time before he will get here. And do you remember the Dreampoint in the cave here? It also serves as a Nightmarepoint, you just need to focus on where you want to go. That is the Nightmarepoint closest to the summit, and if we wait there, we could have a chance of catching them," he explained.

"Alright then, looks like we have yet another plan," Luigi said, not quite optimistic.

Nobody listened to that, however, and they entered the cave. There, Luigi and Dreambert opened a portal to the Nightmare World.

"I´ll wait here, should anything happen," Kamek told the other guys.

"Good luck, guys," John told them.

"Maybe we won´t even need it," Starlow said with a smile, and she and Mario dove into the portal.

Mario and Starlow arrived in the Nightmare World, and Dreambert and Dreamy Luigi soon appeared next to them.

"Where´s Kamek?" Dreambert asked the two.

"He stayed in the real world, so he could react if anything happened we haven´t accorded for," Mario told him.

"Fine, we still are a good team anyway. So let´s go and search for Nico…," Dreambert said, but was interrupted by laughter. They all turned their heads to the right, and saw Nico standing on a big, metallic something.

"I knew that you would develop that plan, so I´ve been kind and prepared a welcoming party. Isn´t that right, Nicbot and Dreambunny?" he told them with a grin. Nicbot appeared from behind the structure, holding Dreambunny in one of his hands.

"It certainly is, and our little mascot here will serve us well during your destruction," the robot replied.

"Let him go immediately, and fight us already!" Mario challenged them.

"Oh, don´t worry, we´ll do both. Nicbot won´t hold him any longer, and we WILL battle now," Nico answered, and took out a remote control with a single button on it. He pressed it, and the entire ground started to shake. Nico opened a hatch on the structure and entered it, closing it afterwards again. Nicbot on the other hand flew upwards, and it was then that Mario and Co. realised how big the trouble was they were currently in.

The structure began travelling upwards as well, with more and more metal coming from the ground beneath it, until it was revealed to be only the head of a giant robot Nico could control. The robot looked exactly like Nico, and as the robot looked down, they could see Nico controlling it from behind one of the glasses. Nicbot flew next to the torso of the robot, where a force field protected a little hole in it. He deactivated it, and locked Dreambunny in there, where the energy of Dreambunny was soon to be drained by the giant machine. The force field reappeared, and Nicbot positioned himself on top of the head of the machine.

"Umm…guys? I think we could have a HUGE problem," Dreambert said to the others, sweat running down his face.

"You don´t say, Obviousbert," Starlow replied.

"I never said that I´d play fair, though," Nico told them from his seat.

"Great, so now we simply destroy them," Nicbot cheered.

Everyone was shivering as the robot slowly stepped closer, but Dreamy Luigi remained calm and tapped on Mario´s shoulder, who turned his head to face his brother. He could see Dreamy Luigi glowing and the determined look on his face. Mario knew what time it was, and he was ready for it as well. He and Luigi both took battle stance, and they knew that it was John´s time to help them now.

In the real world, John was hoping that his friends were alright, when he suddenly noticed Luigi pulling his hat in front of his eyes, with the "L" on it glowing. He was confused at first, but then remembered what Dreambert had once told him about this situation.

"Are you battling them right now? Good luck then, you´ll probably need a little power boost," he said to the sleeping Luigi, and put his hand on the "L".

Luiginoids started to fuse with Dreamy Luigi, and he started increasing in size. More and more of them came, and Starlow noticed what happened to him.

"Wait…is IT happening right now?" she asked Dreambert, as she remembered what they had told her about the giant battles.

"Yes. We will have Dreamy Luigi take them on now," Dreambert replied.

Dreamy Luigi grew further, until he reached the same size as Nico´s robot. The owner of the robot was shocked when he saw what happened in front of him, but was determined to stomp his enemies anyway.

"So…you really DO want to play fair, huh? Don´t think that you can beat my Gigabot and Nicbot, we will destroy you," Nico announced, while Mario jumped onto Giant Luigi´s hat. Starlow flew next to the red plumber, and Dreambert hovered in front of Giant Luigi´s face.

"It´s up to you now. We´ll support you, take ´em out!" he encouraged their gigantic friend. Giant Luigi nodded, and took battle stance.

* * *

 **Gigabot HP: 100% Nicbot: mounted**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 100% Mario and Starlow: mounted**

"Well then, come at us! We´re waiting," Nico challenged Giant Luigi.

He prepared to jump onto the robot, but just as he jumped, the Gigabot took one step backwards, causing Giant Luigi to land in front of him. Nico then let his robot punch the plumber back, dealing damage to him in the process.

"Did you really think I was just going to stand there and take it?" Nico laughed, and started attacking Giant Luigi.

 **Gigabot HP: 100% Nicbot: mounted**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 90% Mario and Starlow: mounted**

Three missile launchers appeared on the back of Gigabot, and he leaned forwards. Giant Luigi took his hammer out, and the launchers started firing. The projectiles closed in, but Giant Luigi managed to fire all six missiles back, causing damage to Nico´s robot himself.

"Ugh, I forgot how annoying you can be," Nico said, annoyed by the giant in front of him, while Gigabot stood straight again.

 **Gigabot HP: 85% Nicbot: mounted**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 90% Mario and Starlow: mounted**

Giant Luigi took his hammer out and prepared to perform a Hammer Uppercut. Gigabot´s right hand changed into an energy blade in response, ready to defend. Giant Luigi swung his hammer upwards, but Gigabot blocked the strike near ground level. The green plumber tried again, this time with a strike coming from the bottom right, which was also blocked. He then pretended to swing from the bottom left, but as the robot attempted to block, he redirected the hammer to come from directly underneath the robot, hitting him and sending him flying backwards, with Gigabot landing on its back.

Nicbot managed to stay on the machine, but he only barely did it. Giant Luigi jumped and tried to stomp onto Gigabot for extra damage, but Nicbot sent a barrage of missiles against him. They didn´t hurt Giant Luigi much, but confused him so that he landed next to the robot. Luigi pulled back, as Gigabot managed to stand back up.

 **Gigabot HP: 75% Nicbot: mounted**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 85% Mario and Starlow: mounted**

"Nice, I´ll have to admit. But this is far from over," Nico said.

Gigabot prepared to strike with its sword, and Giant Luigi took his hammer out. The first strike came from the right, which he managed to block. The second one was quicker and came from the left, and the plumber couldn´t swing his hammer in time, taking damage in the process. The third and most powerful blow came from atop, but Giant Luigi´s hammer clashed against the blade. The two giants tried to push each other back, and Giant Luigi soon managed to push Gigabot back, throwing his hammer after him while the robot slid backwards.

Nicbot saw the incoming threat and boosted himself upwards, so he wouldn´t get knocked off the machine. The hammer hit the robot directly in the head, causing not only a headache to the robot, but its owner as well. Gigabot didn´t fall over, but he was tottering quite a lot.

 **Gigabot HP: 65% (stunned) Nicbot: mounted**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 65% Mario and Starlow: mounted**

Giant Luigi used this to prepare for a Drill Stomp. He jumped upwards and waited for Mario, but there was one thing they hadn´t accounted for. Nicbot flew up as well, and used his missiles to blast Mario and Starlow, who was spinning as well, away from Giant Luigi. Without his friends helping him, the green plumber tumbled down again, dealing minor damage to Gigabot. Nico managed to recover from the hit his robot had taken, and Gigabot stood straight again.

 **Gigabot HP: 60% Nicbot: mounted**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 65% Mario and Starlow: missing**

"Hey! That hurt, now you´re going to be destroyed for real!" Nico shouted at Giant Luigi.

Two giant energy cannons appeared on the shoulders of the robot, and they started powering up. When they were at maximum power, they formed a gigantic ball of energy in front of the robot, which they shot at Giant Luigi. He on the other hand took his hammer out and smacked it back, but Gigabot deflected it with its sword. The green plumber hit it back again, and Gigabot performed another deflect. Giant Luigi hit it back with more force this time, and the ball was too fast for Nico to react in time. The robot flew backwards as the ball hit it, and Nicbot got knocked away from the machine. Gigabot fell over from the massive blast it had taken, and Giant Luigi jumped onto it, performing a double-jump.

 **Gigabot HP: 20% (stunned) Nicbot: missing**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 65% Mario and Starlow: missing**

Giant Luigi performed another double-jump onto the robot, and landed next to its legs. He then grabbed both of them, and started spinning the robot around, just to throw it into a giant mountain in the distance. Gigabot landed in the mountain, and Giant Luigi ran towards it. Nico seemed to have regained control over his robot, as it stood up while Giant Luigi approached it.

"Luigi! Here we are!" he heard a familiar voice. He looked behind him, and saw Starlow flying Mario, who was hanging on her, towards him. They both landed on his hat, and Luigi gave them a 'thumps up' to show them that he was okay. Gigabot seemed heavily damaged, it couldn´t take long until Nico lost control over it.

 **Gigabot HP: 7% Nicbot: missing**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 65% Mario and Starlow: mounted**

"Grr…I´m not done with you!" Nico yelled at them, and Gigabot started spinning.

The robot came closer, and Luigi had to step back in order to not get hit by the blade. He then counterattacked by jumping forward, right onto the head of Gigabot. It stopped its attack, and Nico seemed to have trouble staying in control.

"Come on, come on…" he mumbled as the robot walked into different directions every second.

"Hey there, master. Having trouble with your toy?" Nicbot asked as he landed on the head of Gigabot again.

"This is not the right time for that. Help me already!" Nico shouted back.

 **Gigabot HP: 5% (ready to be finished) Nicbot: mounted**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 65% Mario and Starlow: mounted**

"Great, now finish them," Dreambert cheered them on.

Giant Luigi prepared for their Finishing Bros. attack, and jumped up into space. There, he grabbed a star and prepared to throw it. Mario hopped onto it, and Giant Luigi spun several times before throwing the star into the direction of Gigabot. Mario directed the star to fly into the robot´s head, but Nicbot had other plans for them. He fired a barrage of missiles at him, and Mario managed to dodge some of them. He eventually got hit by one, and got knocked off the star, the attack failing in the process. Giant Luigi landed on the ground again, and Starlow managed to stop Mario from falling just as he was about to hit the ground, using her levitation powers to do so. She levitated him onto Giant Luigi´s hat again.

"Got enough power yet?" Nicbot asked his master.

"Not quite, but I´m close," he replied.

 **Gigabot HP: 5% (ready to be finished) Nicbot: mounted**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 65% Mario and Starlow: mounted**

"He can´t defend him forever. Keep attacking!" Dreambert encouraged Mario and Giant Luigi.

They nodded, and went for another run. Giant Luigi jumped up again and prepared the star, just to send Mario onto his journey towards Gigabot again. Nicbot opened up on Mario again, but this time, Mario took evasive actions and dodged the robot´s projectiles. He closed in, and Nicbot realised that he couldn´t stop Mario this time. He boosted himself away from the robot, as the star smashed into Gigabot´s head. The robot did prove to be a tough target though, as the star only got stuck in it, but didn´t smash through it. The damage dealt by it was enough to take Gigabot out, though, and the gigantic robot fell backwards, crashing onto the ground.

Mario jumped off just as the robot started to fall, and returned to his friends who were waiting for him. They all cheered, but it was too early for them to celebrate. Nicbot landed on the glass Nico was sitting behind, and found that his master seemed to be mostly alright.

"And now? We don´t have that much time left…" he asked his master.

"Yes, I´ve drained enough energy for a repair, but I won´t be able to fully repair it. But, given that Dreambunny still has massive amounts of energy in him, we can fight for a long time. Initiating Repair-System!" he told his robot, and pressed a few buttons.

The robot shook as the energy Gigabot had drained from Dreambunny was put into the system for repairing. The robot was being repaired from the inside out, and Nico quickly had control over his fighting machine again. He made it stand up again, and Nicbot took the star out of the robot´s head. Giant Luigi and the others were surprised to see the robot stand again, and Starlow noticed Dreambunny being weaker than before.

"He must be using Dreambunny to keep himself in the fight…" she figured.

"So…what do we do about this?" Mario asked the others.

"Hm…I do believe that we could get Dreambunny out of there, but we´d need another Finishing Bros. for that. Once we are ready to do that, I´ll explain to you how we will do that," Dreambert told them.

"I don´t like that they´re planning something. Get energy from him in advance," Nicbot suggested his master while watching the others.

"You´re probably right. I´m on it," Nico replied. Gigabot was fully functional again, it wasn´t at maximum health tough.

 **Gigabot HP: 70% Nicbot: mounted**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 65% Mario and Starlow: mounted**

"So…are you ready for Round 2? I hope you aren´t," Nico shouted, and began charging at Giant Luigi.

Gigabot prepared for a devastating strike with its blade, but Giant Luigi took out his hammer and counterattacked. The weapons clashed against each other, and both sides tried to push their enemy back. Starlow noticed Nicbot flying towards Giant Luigi.

"Dreambert!" she shouted while looking at the robot.

"I see him. We can´t let him interfere anymore," he said as he flew next to her.

"Hehehe…tickle tickle tickle!" Nicbot chuckled, and prepared to shoot Giant Luigi with his missiles.

Starlow and Dreambert reacted with creating Love Spheres above them and throwing them at Nicbot, who evaded the projectiles, but didn´t get to fire his missiles at Giant Luigi. Thanks to Starlow and Dreambert, Giant Luigi was able to push Gigabot back again. Throwing the hammer again wouldn´t work this time, Giant Luigi knew, but he remembered the fight against Giant Dreamy Bowser.

Luigi smacked his hammer on the ground, causing a massive earthquake, which caused Gigabot to lose its balance for a brief moment, which Giant Luigi used to close in on it. He repeated doing this two more times, until he was close enough to the robot to smack it away with his hammer. It flew away, but landed on its feet again, and through the glasses the heroes could see a definitely not happy Nico. As Giant Luigi walked in front of Gigabot again, Nicbot landed on the gigantic robot.

 **Gigabot HP: 60% Nicbot: mounted**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 65% Mario and Starlow: mounted**

Luigi tried to hit the robot with a Hammer Chop, but Nico yet again tried to block the hit. It was then that Starlow had an idea.

"Dreambert, do you think we can limit that thing´s movement?" she asked him.

"Well…theoretically, it is one thing Nico created using his magic, so I guess it SHOULD have an effect…" the Pi'illo replied, unsure.

"Alright, good enough. Let´s see if we can stop his arm," she ordered him.

"Uhh…fine? I guess?" he said, and together they sent a love beam against the shoulder which had the arm with the blade attached to it.

"Hey, it seems to be working," Starlow exclaimed, surprised.

The arm seemed to be moving slowly, as if Starlow and Dreambert had managed to slow it down.

"What the…NICBOT!" Nico shouted as he realised the problem he had.

"I´m on it," the robot replied.

Nicbot flew from the head towards Giant Luigi´s hat, while the giant plumber smacked Gigabot away, back into the mountain Nico had already landed in. Mario and Dreambert were currently cheering as Gigabot flew away, when they suddenly hear Starlow scream. They turned around, and were shocked to see Nicbot holding their favourite Star Sprite by the star.

"I´ll be borrowing this for the battle. Have fun," Nicbot told them, and flew away from Giant Luigi towards Gigabot again.

"And, Nicbot? Have you done something useful?" Nico asked him as the robot returned to his master.

Instead of answering himself, he simply held Starlow up, who desperately tried to kick the robot.

"Well, I´ll take that as a 'yes'," Nico assumed.

"This isn´t over yet! See?" she angrily shouted at Nico, while pointing towards a familiar green figure closing in really fast on them. Giant Luigi seemed to be seriously angry for the first time.

"This could be interesting. Do you still have popcorn-shaped oil-flakes lying around?" Nicbot asked his master.

"Sorry, forgot to make some this time," he replied.

"Aw man, then I´ll simply root for you," Nicbot complained, and landed on Gigabot again.

"Let Starlow and Dreambunny go NOW!" Dreambert shouted at them once Giant Luigi was close enough.

"Phew, someone´s got a bit of a wild temper, huh? You´ll have to earn them," Nico replied with a grin.

 **Gigabot HP: 50% Nicbot: mounted, holding Starlow hostage**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 65% Mario: mounted; Starlow: held hostage**

"Alright, fools! If you damage my Gigabot or Nicbot, your little friend here is DONE! You got that?" Nico announced from his seat. Giant Luigi was unsure what to do, as any unthoughtful actions could have a bad outcome for them.

While they were thinking, something happened nobody had accounted for. All of a sudden, Nicbot was sent flying towards the heroes, landing in the snow before Giant Luigi. The sudden flight had caused him to let go of Starlow, who was now sitting on Gigabot, confused due to what just happened. As she looked around, she saw Kamek hovering on his broom in front of her.

"Kamek! I thought you stayed in the real world?" Starlow exclaimed, both happy and confused at once.

"You guys took forever, so I decided to drop by and check on you. Looks like that was the right choice," the Magikoopa explained.

 **Gigabot HP: 50% Nicbot: missing**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 65% Mario and Starlow: mounted**

Giant Luigi on the other hand stomped onto Nicbot, completely digging him into the ground. Nico saw that was outnumbered, and decided to go for a final attack. He activated all of the weapons at once. Giant Luigi saw the energy cannons, rocket launchers and so on appearing. Kamek and Starlow flew over and re-joined with Mario and Co.

"That´s it! I´m done with you!" Nico yelled, and fired every weapon he had mounted at them.

"Well, I´d like to stay, but in case he gets away: I´ll have to be ready. But, knowing you, you´ll defeat him," Kamek told them, and flew off again.

As every single projectile flew towards them, Giant Luigi got his hammer ready and started spinning, deflecting everything Nico fired at him. Some of the projectiles hit Gigabot back, but Giant Luigi closed in on it while he was spinning. Eventually, he was close enough to hit the robot, and so he started spinning into it. Nico would´ve been flung around in his robot, if he hadn´t been secured by a security belt. Giant Luigi stopped after he hit Gigabot several times, and brought the hammer down on its head.

 **Gigabot HP: 5% (ready to be finished); Nicbot: became a Monty Mole**

 **Giant Luigi HP: 65% Mario and Starlow: mounted**

Nico again lost control over his robot, and Giant Luigi prepared to free Dreambunny. He jumped up and wanted to grab the star, but Dreambert took it away from him.

"Let us prepare this thing first. Starlow, focus on it," Dreambert ordered.

The Star Sprite understood, and together they focused their love on the star. Soon, it became a white star filled with love.

"That should be enough to get rid of that force field. Now go, Nicbot won´t be knocked out forever," the Pi'illo told them.

Giant Luigi prepared to throw the star, and Mario hopped onto it. The plumber in green threw the star, and Mario aimed it at the force field trapping Dreambunny. He came closer, and jumped off the star onto the robot just before it hit the field. Both the star and the force field glowed, and soon both of them vanished. Mario climbed down the robot towards Dreambunny, and as soon as he reached the hole in the torso, he grabbed him and pulled him out of the machine.

Mario jumped down from the robot, and Giant Luigi landed in front of the robot again. Down on the ground, Mario let go of the little bunny, which seemed to be tired, but mostly fine. It hopped away from the battlefield, knowing that Gigabot was yet to be destroyed. Mario re-joined Starlow on Giant Luigi´s hat.

"Let´s finish the job, but we´ll do it BIG," Dreambert announced, and Giant Luigi jumped up once again.

This time however, Dreambert powered the star up and increased its size substantially. Mario hopped onto the star again, and Giant Luigi sent him onto his ride. Down on the ground, Nicbot slowly flew towards Gigabot and knocked on the glass Nico was behind.

"Oh, there you are. Will you help me against THAT?" Nico greeted his robot and pointed at Mario, who was closing in with his Star Driver attack.

"Simple: everything we have against that star," Nicbot replied.

"I´m good at that," Nico said, and activated the automatic Firing-System. He then left the robot´s head and summoned countless red spheres above him, just to throw them towards the star, while Nicbot and Gigabot opened up on Mario as well.

Mario saw the waves of projectiles coming, and tilted the star in the correct angles to dodge them. As he came closer, Nico and Nicbot both panicked, and as they realised that the battle was over, they bailed from the scene, while Mario smashed through the robot, causing it to explode after he flew through it.

Mario and the rest, who had come to the ground again, celebrated, while Giant Luigi glowed green and the countless Luiginoids left Dreamy Luigi again, shrinking him to normal size. There were ow only Nico and Nicbot themselves to take care of.

Mario and the others walked towards Dreambunny, who waited for them. When they approached it, the bunny jumped onto them in joy, and after saying their "Goodbyes" to it, it disappeared into the depths of the world that was the Nightmare World.

"Will he be alright?" Dreamy Luigi wondered.

"He´ll find a way to the Dream World, as always. Now, let us focus on our most important task," Dreambert reminded them.

"Right, these two. I think I saw them heading for the portal," Starlow told everyone.

"Maybe Kamek could have delayed their departure. Come on, everybody!" Dreambert assumed, and the heroes walked towards the portal, ready to end this adventure once and for all.

* * *

 **So…only Nico and Nicbot left, no traps, no surprises. What will Mario and Starlow find once they leave the Nightmare World? Will Nico manage to take over? Find out more in the next chapters, which will come…eventually? I don´t know when, but they WILL come.**

 **So yeah, Superstar Sage + Bowser´s Minions is out. Couldn´t play it until today, because I was sick, which prevented me from buying it, but now I have something I can waste my life on again. Hooray!**

 **Anyways, same deal as always: Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	13. The reason for my existence

**I´m glad that you guys liked the giant battle in the last chapter. The adventure isn´t over yet, of course; the big bosses themselves have to be taken down as well. Will Mario and Co. manage to save the day?**

 **Now…TheBeanishKaiDBS: you´re the same person who requested me to write something earlier on this story, aren´t you? I know that I said that people could send me requests…but I think I should´ve been a bit more specific….Now, you see, you basically already have your story set up, and YOU (as the one who requested it) should exactly know what it will be like, so why don´t you try it yourself? I know that rejecting (again) isn´t that good for my image (again), but I think people should just try their best to produce their stories and share them with others.**

 **Other reasons for my rejection are: I don´t care about any DB-related stuff; the only thing I really care about is the Mario section. Then, I don´t want to change what led up to Superstar Saga and the following games. I might have done a little in my stories (and I didn´t like Paper Jam as much as the other games), but I´m happy with where I am right now (I mean…I inserted myself into the Mario & Luigi series! It´s one of my dreams to be in it, so I´ve done that). And, finally, I don´t think that I will write another Romance-type story anytime soon. It depends on whether I like the shipping, but DreamStar somehow caught me. I´ll be more likely to write adventures or something like that, just like how I am doing right now.**

 **So…yeah. I´m rejecting a request (again), but I do have my reasons (okay, I´m also a bit lazy at the moment, but still). Try and write the story yourself, you pretty much got the plan for it. Or, if you´re too shy or something like that: give it to someone who has written both stories for DB and Mario. Good luck.**

 **Fine, now that I got that out of my way: hope you enjoy this chapter, we´re closing in on the end.**

* * *

Mario and Starlow prepared to leave the Nightmare World again, as Nico and Nicbot had escaped into the real world again. The battle against Gigabot had caught them off guard, but they managed to defeat the robot and set Dreambunny free again. The bunny would most likely find a way into the Dream World again, and it was up to Mario, Luigi, Starlow, Dreambert and Kamek to stop Dark Nico and Nicbot from becoming unstoppable. And if they were lucky, Kamek had managed to stop the duo, or at least slowed them down.

Mario and Starlow jumped into the portal and travelled into the real world again. What they saw told them what had happened. Kamek lied on the floor, unconscious, while John looked like he had been immobilized. The portal above Luigi closed, and he woke up, with Dreambert returning to his Pi'illo form again. They realised what had happened in the cave as well, and brought Kamek back with a 1-Up Mushroom. They were starting to run low on them, they only had three left.

"So…looks like they got past you, Kamek," Starlow said after the Magikoopa woke up again.

"Yeah, but just barely. I fought with all of my strength, and it was a close battle, but they managed to overcome me in the end," Kamek told them.

"Well, they actually jumped out of the portal and knocked you out within a few seconds, but I think you´ve hit your head and forgot about that. And then Nico immobilized me…again. After he jumped out of the portal…again," John interrupted, annoyed.

"Details are boring. So, let us defeat them for good," Kamek replied.

"Um…yeah. I guess they are on top of the mountain," Dreambert said.

They left the cave again, and headed for the Warp-Pipe. They gathered together on top of it, and were warped to the top of Mt. Pajamaja. Since Nico had to recreate the Dream Stone here, he wouldn´t allow them to chase him from there. A fight was ensured, and this time, they had to bring Nico and his robot down.

"Well then…are you ready?" Starlow asked the rest of the group.

Everyone nodded, so they stepped out of the small cave containing the pipe which brought them here. As they stepped out, they could see a figure standing on the edge of the summit, waiting for them. As soon as it saw them, it turned its head and seemed to say something to someone who was with him.

Nicbot activated his thrusters and flew towards them, and Nico walked down the pathway leading to the area they were currently in. Soon, both sides met by the Dreampoint, and Nicbot landed next to his master again. They stared at each other for a few seconds, before Nico spoke up.

"You are as persistent as the last time I had a great plan to take over everything. Not that I hate people who are determined to reach their goals, as I am one myself, but I really hate you for getting in my way again and again," he said.

"You won´t get away this time. We´ll make sure to defeat both of you," Mario challenged them.

"You won´t take over this time, and you won´t do it as long as we are there to stop you," Starlow added.

"Master…even with the power you gained from the Dark Stone, I doubt that we´ll be able to defeat all five of them," Nicbot told Nico.

"If we don´t fight them, they´ll prevent us from creating the desired objects," Nico replied.

"Then there´s only one option…" Nicbot said after a short break, and stepped forward.

"Wait…are you…?" the human began, but his robot cut him off.

"We can´t defeat them right now, not as long as the Sleep Stone isn´t created and powered up. That´s why I´ll buy you enough time to create the stone, and then…you´ll avenge me," Nicbot explained.

"No! You do know what my vision was, how I wanted to rule the world with you as my loyal assistant…I won´t allow you to sacrifice yourself!" Nico shouted at him.

"This is not your decision anymore, my mind is set. Besides…it is part of the reason you had built me for: to help you, so you could achieve your goals. And with this last action of mine, I´ll help you," the robot responded.

"But…I…what am I going to do…" Nico said so quiet that you almost couldn´t hear him.

"I know that you don´t like it at all, but I don´t see any other option. Now, go and do what we came here for. Don´t worry, I´ll give them a few scars to remember me," Nicbot said, and pushed Nico back, shifting his right hand into his launcher and the left one into a blade after that.

"You…were my best creation, and unique as well…I won´t let your sacrifice go to waste!" Nico promised him, a tear appearing in his eye. He then ran back to the summit, leaving his robot on his own to stall as much time as possible.

"Ugh…I can´t believe that I actually have to do this now, but this is how it is. I know that I can´t win against you, but I´ll make sure to give you a good run for your money," the robot said to Mario and Co.

"We´ll still stop your master, Dark Nico won´t win," Mario promised.

"Well, if you really want to do that, you´ll have to get past me first," Nicbot replied, and started his thrusters again, making him hover slightly above the ground.

"Nicbot! Catch!" a familiar voice shouted from the mountain´s summit.

The robot turned around, and everyone saw Nico throwing a purple ball of energy towards them. Nicbot flew towards it, and as soon as he touched it, the energy made its way into the robot.

"That should help," Nico told them, and then turned around and returned to the summit.

"What…could it…?" Nicbot began, before a purple glow emerged from his body.

"What is happening?" Luigi asked the others.

"I don´t know, but it seems like Nicbot…can use the Nightmare Energy…" Dreambert assumed.

"Of course…my master is a genius! Thanks to the energy…I will turn you into dust," Nicbot announced, before the glow formed something on the robot. The energy formed two more arms on him, and as the glow disappeared he had two additional, fully functional arms. And it seemed to have upgraded his arsenal as well.

The blade he wielded reappeared on the other side of his hand, making it a sword with two blades on one handle. His launcher started to split, and it turned into four launchers mounted onto one hand. One of the hands revealed a ray gun, but more of them appeared on it several times, until his hand was like a Gatling gun, ready to spew out countless rays. His fourth hand changed into a two-bladed sword as well, turning him into an offensive and defensive powerhouse. As a last result, the eyes of the robot glowed purple.

"Much better," Nicbot said confidently, and aimed his weapons at them.

"Well…this will be interesting," Mario said, and everyone prepared to battle the upgraded robot, except for John, who retreated to the cave containing the Warp-Pipe.

Nicbot opened fire, and aimed for Starlow and Dreambert. The couple flew away from the projectiles, but the storm of rays and missiles seemed to be endless. Mario and Luigi weren´t able to reach the robot, as he was flying high enough above the ground to avoid their jumps.

It was then that Kamek created a barrier in front of the group, blocking the rain the robot sent at them. Starlow and Dreambert were able to recover for a bit, and then created a bunch of spheres above them. They threw them at Nicbot, who landed on the ground in order to dodge them. He went over to attacking Mario and Luigi in close quarter combat, and the brothers realised how dangerous he was with his double-blades. While one blade each clashed against the hammers, the other side was quickly turned towards them as well, forcing the brothers to jump back, as they were defenceless whilst blocking one of the blades.

The ranged trio got ready to blast Nicbot away, but he fired at Starlow and Dreambert again, preventing them from attacking him, whilst fighting the Mario Bros., who had a hard time keeping up with him. Kamek on the other hand shot several magical bolts at him, some of which Nicbot blocked using the spare blades.

One bolt managed to strike him, however, stopping his onslaught for a brief moment. This gave Starlow and Dreambert enough time to shoot him with a beam of love, while Mario and Luigi went with hammering the robot´s head. He took damage, but he was a tough nut. He used the blades to block the love beam hitting him, and aimed his weapons at Mario and Luigi, who immediately jumped away from him before he could fire.

Nicbot then changed his launchers into a double-edged sword as well, using one sword to block the love beam. He then dashed towards Starlow and Dreambert, and as the plumbers tried to stop him, he blocked their strikes with his other swords. The couple increased the altitude they were hovering at, just for Nicbot to use his thrusters to fly towards them.

He fired at Dreambert with his ray guns, and forced him to get closer to Starlow. When they were near each other, Nicbot boosted himself into their direction and started spinning, taking both of them out with his energy swords. The two fell on the ground, unconscious, and Nicbot changed his focus on the remaining three fighters.

"I can get them back into action, but he has to be distracted," Kamek told them, as Nicbot changed one of the swords into his launchers again.

"Don´t worry, we´ll keep him busy. Ready, bro?" Mario replied, and took out a Fire Flower.

"Yep, let´s do this," Luigi said, and they both turned into Fire Mario and Fire Luigi.

The brothers summoned fireballs in their hands and threw them at the robot, who used his swords to block them, or flew to the side if he couldn´t dodge one. While they were busy, Kamek flew over to Starlow and Dreambert. He turned into a white Magikoopa and prepared to reanimate them, when a missile fired by Nicbot landed next to him.

Kamek turned around, and saw that Nicbot had changed his position, so he was able to block Mario and Luigi´s attack while also preventing Kamek from reviving the knocked out couple. He realised that he had to fight as well and use the next opportunity to help his allies.

He created a white ring around the robot, and it closed up on him. Before the ring could damage Nicbot, the robot flew higher, but Kamek summoned another ring around the machine. The process repeated itself a few times, until Kamek created several rings at once and tilted them, trapping the robot in a ball of magic. Kamek used this to cast a spell on Starlow and Dreambert, reviving them with a few HP.

"Ugh…thanks, Kamek. This guy is quite powerful, I have to admit," Starlow said once she woke up.

Starlow and Dreambert started hovering again, and shared a Super Nut. Kamek commanded the rings to close up on Nicbot, but the robot busted the rings away with his blades, launchers and ray guns. As the rings were destroyed, Starlow and Dreambert hit him with another love beam, while Kamek changed into a red Magikoopa.

Mario and Luigi kept throwing fireballs, while Kamek summoned a giant broom. He smacked Nicbot on the ground with it and then sent him flying into the wall next to the cave. The robot recovered from the blasts he had taken, however, and began to hover again.

"As strong as a team you may be, I´m never giving up. Because I can and WILL destroy you!" the machine shouted at them, and then changed all of his weapons into launchers, with each launcher being able to fire once per second, which gave him a rate of fire of 16 missiles per second.

"This is for what you made us go through. Justice rains from above!" he went on, flew up high and unleashed waves of energy missiles at Kamek, Starlow, Mario and Luigi.

"Hang on…wasn´t that a quote from a game that has been released a few months ago?" Mario asked his brother while they were trying to dodge the projectiles.

"Maybe, focus on surviving for now," Luigi replied while jumping away from another missile.

Dreambert, who wasn´t targeted, thought about how he could help his friends. Looking around, he realised that the solution was lying around everywhere. He landed on the ground and collected some snow, forming it into a ball afterwards. He then aimed and threw it, and the snowball landed directly in Nicbot´s face, blocking his view.

The robot stopped firing, and the heroes instantly regrouped and prepared for another attack. While Nicbot wiped the snow from his optics, Mario and Luigi prepared a Dropchopper. They grabbed hold on it and flew up, and once they were above Nicbot, they let go and stomped him on the ground again. Starlow and Dreambert used yet another love beam, while Kamek summoned shapes, Thwomps and magical bolts to damage the machine.

Even someone like Dark Nico would have gone down by that amount of damage, but Nicbot used one of the launchers to blast the next Thwomp away, another one to keep Dreambert fleeing, stopping the beam, and the other ones to chase the Mario Bros. away.

"Ngh…not bad…" he admitted while standing up.

"How is that guy still able to do something?" Kamek wondered.

"I don´t know, but that makes him the most durable enemy we had to face yet," Starlow replied.

"Look…I know that I had failed to defeat you several times, but even if you do manage to defeat me, which won´t happen, it should be too late for you to stop my master now. It doesn´t make a big difference if you get blasted away by me or…being defeated by him. And now: come on, bring it!" he told them, and dashed towards Kamek.

Nicbot changed his weapons back to his layout he used at the beginning of the battle, and struck the Magikoopa with his swords. Kamek fell off his broom, knocked out, and Nicbot changed his focus. The robot now went after Mario and Luigi, firing missiles and rays after them while chasing them.

Starlow used that to get a 1-Up Mushroom, and revived Kamek. The Magikoopa nodded after he stood up again, and flew towards Nicbot again, who had managed to fire a missile close enough to Mario and Luigi so that they were thrown on the ground, losing their fire form as well. As he was about to finish the brothers of, Kamek, Starlow and Dreambert fired at him again.

Nicbot lost control and landed on the ground, where Mario and Luigi, after standing up again, spun next to him with their hammers out. Mario and Luigi eventually stopped, being a bit dizzy, and Nicbot fell over on the ground. The purple glow in his eyes disappeared, along with the additional arms and upgraded weapons.

"What happened right now?" Starlow wondered.

"Looks like we´ve been able to beat the Nightmare Energy out of him, using our love and Kamek´s magic, as well as the Mario Bros with their attacks," Dreambert assumed.

"Urgh…what…how…" Nicbot said, slowly standing up again.

"This is the end, Nicbot. We´re done with you," Mario announced.

"Master…I´m not giving up…" Nicbot said, and changed his hands into blades.

He then charged at the Mario Bros, but Starlow and Dreambert sent another love beam, stopping him. Mario hammered the back of the robot, while Luigi hammered the front, and they swapped their targeted area with each strike. Eventually, a sound could be heard from the thruster in the robot´s back.

"Huh? Is that…oh…" Nicbot realised. Mario and Luigi stopped hammering his back and front, and brought their hammers down on the robot´s feet, which activated the thrusters built into them.

"So…that is it, huh? I had a good run, and still…I failed," Nicbot said to himself, while the thrusters were building up power. He wasn´t able to shut them off, the damage he had taken was too severe.

"Remember my words: you will regret…getting in my master´s way…he will punish you. As for me…" he went on, but the thrusters started up, sending him into the air at high velocity.

"See you...winners, I guess. You haven´t seen the last of me! I will return!" he shouted.

After some time, the thrusters stopped again, but he hadn´t flown in a straight line, causing him to fall down Mount Pajamaja. He went by the area the heroes were in, and they ran to the edge in order to watch him fall, but clouds blocked their sight after a short amount of time.

"Was that…it? Did we finally get rid of him?" Luigi asked the others.

"Seems like it. After taking that much damage, there is no way he can survive falling down there. We did it," Dreambert assumed, and everyone cheered.

"Well then, there is only Dark Nico left," Mario said to the others.

"Protected by Nico´s body, that is," Starlow reminded him.

"So we´ll take Nico out first. And then Light Nico should be able to help us," Mario replied.

"We should hurry, though. Dark Nico had plenty of time; he should be creating the Sleep Stone as we speak right now. Quick, to the summit!" Dreambert told everyone.

They informed John that they were done with Nicbot, and also ordered him to stay safe in the cave for now. If they were going to face Nico and Dark Nico, they couldn´t allow anyone else to be in danger of being hurt or abused. It wouldn´t be the first time Dark Nico forced Nico to use someone as a hostage.

After healing up again, they walked towards the summit. The final battle was coming up, and they were the only ones who were able to stop the soul trying to conquer the world. If they failed, everything was lost. They were ready, and so was Dark Nico.

* * *

 **So…yeah. I´ve struggled for a long time writing the fight, it seemed…hard to make it into something I accepted as worth posting. And I also wasn´t able to use my PC as much as I would´ve liked to, so yeah…that´s why I´m updating with that much of a delay.**

 **Now: our heroes finally managed to take their annoying robotic enemy out, maybe forever, maybe not. But they still have to defeat the creator of the machine, and Mario and Co. will find out that he is about as dangerous as his creation. Can the heroes defeat the dark soul? Can they save the world? Or are they too late and Dark Nico has the ultimate power in his hands? Find out in the next chapter, which will contain the final battle.**

 **And with that I say: Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the next chapter! (Yep, it won´t be the last one.)**


	14. The power of the Sleep Stone

**It is about time our heroes faced their friend and enemy, Nico, who is controlled by Dark Nico. Are they too late? Is Dark Nico going to get the revenge he desires? Read ahead and find out, for this is the showdown with him.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

The moment had come. Mario, Luigi, Starlow, Dreambert and Kamek prepared to climb to the top of Mt. Pajamaja and confront Nico and Dark Nico. She couldn´t help it, but Starlow had to think about Nico again. What was he going to do once he was restored to his former self? She knew that they would have to watch him after this adventure, because he could have suffered psychological damage, maybe even more than the last time he realised what he had done.

"What are you thinking about?" Dreambert asked her while they were walking up the path to the summit.

"Nico. I just hope that Dark Nico didn´t go far enough for his mind to be in a critical state," the Star Sprite told him.

"I know…the only things we can do are to hope and to be there for him. But, to be honest, I feel like he might try to…" he responded, but couldn´t bring himself to speak his thought out.

"Why does he have to suffer such a horrible fate?" she asked, but they both knew that there was no answer to that question.

"Ahem…we are finally here," Mario spoke up. "Now then, let´s do this."

They had reached the end of the ramp, and walked and floated onto the peak of Mt. Pajamaja. In the centre of the area stood Nico with his back turned towards them. He seemed to have noticed them, however, as he spoke up as soon as they gathered behind him.

"So…you are here. That can only mean one thing…" he began, and sighed. "He was my best minion. Not because he has been a robot I created, but because of everything. His attitude, his efficiency, his personality…not to forget: his look. And now? Now he´s gone, even the boost I gave him wasn´t enough."

The human turned around and faced them, and they could see all sorts of emotions going through him: sorrow, fury, hate, but also determination and confidence. He reached for something behind him, and revealed a round, dark blue stone with a swirl on it, with tiny white stars covering a part of its surface.

"The Sleep Stone!" Dreambert gasped as he saw what Nico held in his hand.

"Indeed. This is what will give me unlimited power, so I can take over this world. The only problem is: you didn´t give me enough time to power it up, so I´ll have to do that soon. But, now that you´ve made it here, I guess that I´ll have to take care of you as well, which will be the most satisfying moment of the entire plan so far," Nico replied. Suddenly his eyes glowed blue, and Starlow and Dreambert could feel the power of Dark Nico.

"You are the reason why we´re here after all. If it wouldn´t have been for my counterpart and your love, I´d be the ruler of the world by now," he said, his voice leaving an echo behind. Then his eyes returned to normal, and Nico didn´t seem to feel completely alright.

"What was that?" Luigi asked the others.

"If I had to bet, I´d say that Dark Nico was powerful enough to speak directly to us through Nico," Kamek assumed.

"Just give up. We have outnumbered you and you don´t have any advantages," Mario told Nico. It was then that Starlow had an idea. Maybe Light Nico was strong enough for Nico to be able to decline Dark Nico´s will.

"Come on, Nico. Fight the evil inside you and come back with us," Starlow said to him.

"Starlow? What are you doing?" Dreambert whispered to her.

"Maybe he can fight Dark Nico, depends on how strong the two souls are," she whispered back.

Nico froze at her command, and the Star Sprite could feel Light Nico struggling. He wasn´t weakened by much, but Dark Nico was way stronger than the good soul. Nico hesitated for a moment, though, and seemed to be thinking about everything. A puzzled look crossed his face.

"Guys?" he asked, seemingly confused.

"That´s it, you can do it," she encouraged him.

The human looked at them, and then at the Sleep Stone. He let go of it, and it kept floating next to him. He then looked at his hands, and lifted them as if he wanted to inspect them. As they had reached a high enough position, however, they emitted a blue light, and Starlow, feeling danger closing in, noticed Dark Nico sending energy towards them.

"Quick, dodge!" she yelled at the others, who immediately realized what was about to happen and hustled away from their current location, just in time before lightning bolts struck where they had been standing or hovering a second ago. Nico grinned at them.

"Did you really think that that would work? Pathetic. And now, without further ado, I will finally take care of you for good," he laughed, and then pointed at the Sleep Stone.

"As I told you, this beauty needs to be powered up. It is a combination of the Dream Stone and the Dark Stone. Why do we dream again? Because we all have our subconscious, and that is connected to our souls. In other words: I will power the Sleep Stone with the souls of everyone on this island, excluding me of course," he went on, and then grabbed the artefact, which began to glow in a dark blue light.

Mario and Co. realised that he was about to end every life on Pi'illo Island in order to reach his goals. Starlow and Dreambert tried to intercept the process with a beam of love, but the human shielded the stone and himself. They could get through it, but they wouldn´t make it in time before the Sleep Stone started absorbing the souls of the inhabitants and guests.

"You can´t do that! You are going to kill so many people!" Dreambert shouted at him, while the light grew brighter.

"Well…technically, I´m just separating the souls from the bodies, so they would fall in a sort of coma, which doesn´t count as killing in my opinion," Nico responded, and Starlow and Dreambert felt that they only had a few seconds left.

"I think I can protect us from the effect, but I´ll need your help. Power up my wand, then I should be able to create a shield that blocks the magic," Kamek said to the couple.

Nico was focusing on the Sleep Stone, as he had his shield around it. Starlow and Dreambert focused their love onto the wand, and Kamek began to cast a spell. After a few seconds, a white sphere formed around the group, just as the Sleep Stone unleashed a wave of magic. It hit the sphere, but it didn´t give in, sparing the heroes from the effect.

The other people on the island weren´t as lucky, and the wave of magic soon crossed over the entire island. As soon as the wave passed through someone, they immediately passed out. Shortly afterwards, the two souls of each person were dragged out of their bodies and pulled towards Mt. Pajamaja. It didn´t take long before the souls of everyone on the island, excluding the ones of the people at the top of the mountain, were gathered in the sky above the Sleep Stone.

Nico was looking up, and one of the souls made its way down, entering the Sleep Stone. Many followed, and it almost looked as if the Sleep Stone was a vacuum cleaner, sucking in soul after soul. Nico started to laugh, and made the shield disappear again. He wouldn´t need it, now that there was no one stopping him anymore.

"Hahaha! Yes! I finally did it, I won!" he cheered at the top of his lungs.

"I wouldn´t be too sure about that yet," Mario spoke up.

Nico froze, shocked by the voice he heard. He looked into their direction, and saw the white sphere disappearing. All five of them were still up and ready to fight, willing to stop him and reverse the effect of the Sleep Stone.

"W-what? How?" he asked, trying to regain control over himself.

"Magic," Kamek said, and created three clones of himself. He then made one a green Magikoopa, another one a red one and the last one was turned into a white Magikoopa.

"This is the end of your plan," Mario challenged him, and he and Luigi took battle stance.

"For the Pi'illo Kingdom…" Dreambert began.

"…and the entire world as well. We will stop this madness," Starlow ended.

"Well, so this is how it goes, then. Actually…why not? It is time for the grand finale, the destruction of you pesky heroes," Nico said after a short break. He created a new shield around the Sleep Stone, and moved it to the edge of the lava-filled crater.

"There won´t be any difficulty for us. We have outnumbered you, and have your weakness against you. You don´t stand a chance," Mario repeated, confident.

"Oh, is that a thing? I think you forgot that I have the weakness of your trump card, as they are the only ones that can defeat each other. And, besides…I think you forgot who I am," Nico replied, and created his three types of spheres around him. He then took his sword into his hand and activated it, while also sending a lightning bolt into the earth next to him.

"I am the greatest enemy you have ever faced, and I´ll make sure that I will be the last thing you face! Let´s go!" he shouted at them, with Dark Nico´s hate flowing into his body. He was ready to kill them, but they were ready to bring their friend back to his senses again.

The human threw the spheres into their direction, the red one towards Mario, the purple one targeted Kamek and the last one flew into the direction of Starlow. Kamek sent a magical bolt against his sphere, and they both were destroyed. Starlow and Dreambert created five love spheres and sent them against Nico, with one of them destroying the light blue sphere travelling towards them. They lost one of their spheres because of that, since Dark Nico was now strong enough to match the current power of their love.

Nico used his sword to deflect the love spheres, while Mario stepped out of line of fire in order to dodge the red sphere. As Nico defended himself, he redirected the sphere after it flew past the red plumber to hit him from behind, but Kamek summoned a shield behind him. The sphere crashed into it, creating several cracks on the shield.

Mario and Luigi then took out their hammers and engaged Nico, who stood his ground and defended himself from Mario´s attacks while keeping Luigi away from him by constantly moving around the red plumber, and using a sphere or two if he had to.

The green Kamek on the other hand raised the group´s defensive stats, while Dreambert and Starlow looked for an opportunity to attack Nico. They flew above the fighting trio and readied themselves, but as Nico was always paying attention to the whole battlefield, he saw them moving from their original position.

As soon as they sent a love beam down at him, he disengaged from the plumbers and rolled backwards, just to create two purple spheres, which he sent after them. With the couple being distracted for a short amount of time, he focused Mario and created six red spheres above him. He threw them towards the red plumber, who jumped away from them, but as he landed after dodging for the third time, Nico dashed forward and proceeded to hit him twice with his sword, causing Mario to faint. While that happened, Starlow and Dreambert passed each other narrowly, causing the spheres to collide with each other and explode.

Kamek prepared to attack Nico with his squad, and he and the red Kamek summoned magical shapes and sent them towards Nico. While the human threw his own spheres against Kamek´s attacks, Starlow and Dreambert prepared for another attack. Once they were certain that he wasn´t paying attention to them for a moment, they fired a love beam at him.

Being distracted by the unending amount of projectiles trying to hit him, Nico didn´t see the other threat coming and was hit by the beam. He got stunned by the love, allowing the Kameks´ shapes to hit him. Luigi got involved into the action as well, striking him with his hammer every now and then. While all of that happened, the white Kamek revived Mario. As he saw that they had Nico pinned down for the moment, he got up and ran towards them.

Nico recovered from the Love-Shock he was suffering from, and blocked the beam with his sword. He then dodged Luigi´s hammer strike and backflipped out of danger, landing far enough from them in order to have everyone in his sight. A confused look crossed his face after he landed, and Starlow could feel Light Nico being a bit stronger, trying to regain some control.

"Wait…why am I doing this?" Nico asked, but Dark Nico quickly took full control again. If they were able to give the good soul enough strength, they might be able to win this fight.

"In order to win and get what I deserve after all these years, of course!" Nico answered his own question, and prepared for a new engage.

"I guess it´s time for one of my 'specials'," he went on, and created three red spheres in his hand. He then hit them with his sword, making them disappear, but in return, the blade was glowing red after it hit them.

He then ran forward again, and Starlow and Dreambert created some love spheres in order to stop him. They sent them into his direction, while the red Kamek created a giant broom and sent it to attack Nico. The human swung his sword into the direction of the broom, and a red wave was sent from it, which destroyed the broom as soon as it hit it. The heroes noticed the sword glowing not as red as before.

"Looks like he can only do that a few times before he has to recharge it," Kamek assumed.

Nico continued with sending an equal amount of his own spheres against the ones from the couple, and made his way to the plumbers. Luigi had his hammer ready and prepared to block the hit from Nico, but as soon as the sword hit the hammer, the red glow intensified again, and a small red explosion knocked Luigi back. As he landed on his back, he realised that his hammer was gone, nowhere to be seen.

"Where did my hammer go?" he asked, panicked.

"It looked like it was your hammer that exploded, so it seems like he destroyed it," Dreambert responded, who had had a better view on the scene from his position.

Nico´s blade was only glowing in a slight red, but the best was yet to come. He ran towards Luigi and jumped up, about to ram his sword into exactly the position the plumber was lying at. Mario hustled over to his brother and managed to pull him away after leaping next to him. Nico rammed the sword into the ground, but as Starlow and Dreambert used the opportunity to fire a love beam, the red glow intensified again, and a red shockwave came from Nico´s position, which was about to hit everyone on the summit. It erased the beam, and they all knew that they were in grave danger.

Kamek raised his wand a created a protective bubble around them, but as the wave hit it, it destroyed the shield, it was enough to stop the wave from coming through though. Kamek looked really exhausted by now, with sweat running down his face. The green Kamek raised his wand and buffed the group's offensive stats.

Nico stood a few steps away from them and was ready for more, so Mario and Luigi took out Fire Flowers and turned into their respective forms after consuming them. They began throwing fireballs at him, so he started running around the group, with Starlow and Dreambert sending love spheres as well. Nico came closer with each circle he ran, and once he was quite close to the Kameks, he leaped towards the white one. He created a red sphere and threw it into him, destroying the clone in the process.

As Nico tried to deal with the other ones, however, the green one raised their speed, allowing them to escape in time. Nico only hit the air as he tried to hit the red one in time, and received a spiked iron ball on his head as a price. With Nico being unable to concentrate for a bit, Starlow and Dreambert used another beam of love against him.

He got hit by the love beam, and Mario and Luigi threw more fireballs at him, while the Kameks summoned rings around him and closed them to damage him. After a while, Nico was able to move again, and created a shield around him. With the continuous coming in, it didn´t take long for cracks to appear on the shield.

"No…why am I fighting my friends…this isn´t right," Nico managed to say, looking more confused than before, with his hand which held his sword trembling. Starlow felt Light Nico being stronger again, but it wasn´t enough to do anything about Dark Nico yet. The dark soul´s hate grew stronger as well from anger, and he managed to take control again.

"Alright then, looks like you´re better than I thought. Time for my special attack," Nico said, and as the shield was about to break, he used his knockback beam to boost himself off the ground.

He deactivated his sword and put it on his belt while flying into their direction. He landed in the centre of the group, which was spread up a bit, but still close enough for his attack to be successful. He started to spin with his arms stretched out, and sent out purple spheres while spinning, causing them to fly all over the place, but still going for the heroes.

"Die, die, die!" he shouted while spinning and firing.

Kamek and his remaining clones sent magical bolts against the spheres threatening them, while Starlow and Dreambert created love spheres to protect themselves. Mario spun around with his hammer out and deflected the spheres, while Luigi covered down between the Kameks. One sphere hit the green Kamek at some point, and he disappeared.

Nico stopped after five seconds, sweating. He had never used that much energy in a battle before, and he felt that he wasn´t going to be able to fight for much longer.

"So…you´re still not backing down, huh?" he said while panting.

"Were not giving up," an exhausted Kamek replied. The other ones seemed to be getting tired as well.

 _Just a bit more,_ Starlow thought. If they could hit him again, Light Nico might be able to stop Nico from fighting long enough for them to put him down.

"This is it. We´re finishing the job now," Mario said, and took out a Jet-Board.

The red Kamek summoned more magical shapes around Nico, which he destroyed with his sword. Kamek on the other hand summoned four Thwomps around Nico, and they caught him in a stone prison.

Starlow and Dreambert on the other hand hit the human from above with yet another love beam, stunning him. He took damage from the spheres, and Mario and Luigi performed their Jet-Board Bash. As they were about to reach him, Kamek made the Thwomps disappear again. Mario spun and hit Nico, knocking him to the ground with their attack.

"What? But…why? What is happening to me?" he wondered while he slowly lifted his head. He looked at them, and tears appeared in his eyes. They could tell that he was about to pass out.

"I´m…so…sorry…," he sobbed while his head sank to the ground again. He let go of his sword, and fainted.

"So…that´s that taken care of," Starlow said. She knew that it´d be hard to defeat Dark Nico in their current state, given that they were worn out from the battle they had against their friend.

"Everyone, restore your energy. We´ll need it," Kamek commanded the other ones. Everyone had a glass of Syrup left, so they drank it.

"Alright then, Dark Nico. Come on out!" Mario called the dark soul out, feeling all set up and ready to go again. Nico´s body glowed dark blue at first, and then a light green glow joined the prior one.

"Heh…do you really think you can best me? I´m still stronger than you!" Dark Nico shouted, and he and Light Nico dashed out of the human´s body.

They both had a sword in hand, and fought each other. After a while, Dark Nico disengaged from his counterpart and summoned blue spheres. Light Nico did the same with green ones, and they both fired the spheres at each other while creating new ones. Dark Nico proved to have more power, though, as he soon had more spheres in the air than his enemy. The spheres hit Light Nico, and Dark Nico dashed towards him and kicked him on the ground, where he stayed. He seemed to have lost consciousness for the moment.

"Pathetic. You really thought that you were able to stop me? Get real, I am the more powerful here," he said to the soul. He then turned around and looked at the heroes.

"Grr…just seeing you causes me to have the urge to wreak havoc on you. It has come down to this again, but this time, the outcome will be different. I´ll turn you into dust once and for all, and then I´ll throw the dust into the lava up here," he said to them, the hate inside him boiling up.

"Not as long as we are here to defeat you," Starlow replied.

"We´ll see about that. This is the final showdown, I´ll make you pay for everything," Dark Nico growled.

"Oh yeah? How do you want to defeat us? Do you plan to use the Sleep Stone which should be…powered up…by…now…?" Dreambert answered, but then stopped as he realised how long the battle had been. Everyone turned their head and looked at the Sleep Stone, which was now glowing in a dark blue light. No more souls were flying into it.

They looked back at each other, with the dark soul grinning. He then flew towards the artefact and entered it. Starlow and Dreambert quickly tried to destroy it with a beam, but it formed a new, black shield around itself.

For a moment, nothing happened, because Starlow and Dreambert couldn´t break the shield. Then, the shield burst to reveal Dark Nico, who was now also covered in small white stars, and had white glowing eyes. He had fused with the Sleep Stone and became the most dangerous being there ever was…Sleep Nico.

Starlow and Dreambert felt the enormous power coming from him, and quickly attacked him with a love beam. It did hit him, but it seemed to have no effect on him. Kamek and his red clone also tried everything, but he again didn´t seem to be affected by anything. Even Mario tried, but his hammer simply bounced off the soul. There was nothing they could do.

"The power of the Sleep Stone combined with my own…there is nothing you can do. I am invulnerable," he said, and created a red sphere which reached the red Kamek before they could do anything. The last clone disappeared.

"And now, I´ll make you suffer for as long as I want to. Maybe until your death, maybe forever. Depends on which comes first," he went on, and charged himself up.

At the edge of the battlefield, Light Nico woke up again. He remembered fighting against his counterpart and losing against him, and turned his head. He was shocked to see Sleep Nico and his friends who couldn´t do anything against him.

"Sleep!" Sleep Nico shouted, and a blue shockwave came from him.

Kamek tried to protect everyone with a spell, but he wasn´t quick enough. The only thing he achieved was that he at least prepared the spell long enough for him to only fall asleep, and not suffer from the same effect his friends did.

The wave hit everyone, and they fell asleep, except for Light Nico, who found that that magic had no effect on him. He instead found that a small portion of the Sleep Stone´s power had entered him. He looked at his friends again, and what he felt shocked him again: his friends, except for Kamek, were trapped in a nightmare…their own, personal nightmare.

"Hahahaha, and this is how everything ends. I´ll let you dream forever! And now, with this power in my hands, I shall create a new castle for me," he said to the bodies. He then turned around from everyone and projected something in front of him: a robot.

"First, I´ll need my own personal army again…let´s see…" he mumbled, and started changing things in the projection.

Light Nico knew that he was going to be distracted for a while now. Dark Nico might be someone who tried to do everything efficiently, but his ego got in the way sometimes. And when it came to creating his own castle, his ego stepped in, like the last time he had a castle, Peach´s Castle that was.

He crawled towards Starlow, who was the closest to him. He saw her body twitching from time to time, and her facial expression told him that she was having a bad time. He felt a connection to her, though, as if he was able to link with her dream. Light Nico thought about it. Wasn´t the stone made from dreams and nightmares? He reached out to her, and as he touched her, he felt that he was able to help her. He disappeared and entered Starlow´s mind, looking for a way to end her nightmare.

Starlow lied on the ground in Mushrise Park when she woke up. She was injured and could barely move, and the only thing she was able to do was to see her friends staring at her. No…not at her, behind her. She struggled and turned around, and was shocked to see Dreambert lying dead next to her.

She walked up to the Pi'illo´s body, and found that it was cold. She wasn´t even able to cry, all she could do was to sit down. _How had this happened?_ she asked herself, and finally, her grief took over, and she started crying and threw herself on the corpse.

"This is your fault," she heard Peach speak up.

"You didn´t listen to the prophecy, and now Dark Nico managed to kill Dreambert. The world is his, and it all happened just because you thought that the prophecy wasn´t important," Mario went on.

 _No…no!_ she thought. She tried to remember what had happened, and her memories came back. She remembered the Star Sprites telling her that something dark was going to come for the safety of the world, and that it would try to break the two-pieced key which was needed to defeat this darkness. She understood now: Dark Nico was said darkness, and she and Dreambert were the two-pieced key, as their love was Dark Nico´s weakness.

"Hehe…I must thank you, Starlow. You´ve made this pretty easy for me. You weren´t prepared, and I struck fast and deadly," someone behind her said. She turned around again, and saw Dark Nico hovering between his friends.

She now remembered that they were walking through the park, when Dark Nico suddenly showed up from nowhere. They didn´t know how he was able to leave Nico´s body and wondered where Light Nico was, and he used their confusion and struck Dreambert with pure hate. He had been trying to fight the evil inside him, and the last thing she remembered was Dark Nico striking everyone with a blue sphere, while she desperately looked at Dreambert.

"I don´t need you guys in this world anymore. You are dismissed," he said to her friends, and created red spheres in his hands. As soon as they touched them, everyone turned to dust. There was nobody except Dark Nico and Starlow left, and he turned towards her with a demonical grin.

"I do have a different plan for you, though. I´ll let you live, as my own personal pet. And I know exactly why I will love to see you alive, and so do you," he said, and laughed maniacally. She knew exactly what he meant. She was the one who caused all of her friends to die, let Dreambert die a horrible death by hate, and the world was now Dark Nico´s. He was going to make her live with that thought for the rest of her life, and he was going to make sure that she lived a long life.

He grabbed her by the star, and while she kept crying, he also picked up Dreambert´s corpse. He carried them to the castle, where he put her into a small cage next to the throne, and also sealed Dreambert´s body up in a sphere, letting it hover next to the cage.

"At least you will get to live with Dreambert," he said, and left the throne room again, laughing at the pure evil he had done to her and her friends. Then…the nightmare began anew again.

After the nightmare had repeated itself once and began anew again, she reached the moment Dark Nico was about to turn her friends into dust. As he was about to create the spheres, he was suddenly hit by a light green one, knocking him away. Everyone looked into the direction the projectile came from, and were surprised to see Light Nico hovering in front of them.

"There won´t be a party without me, Dark Nico" he said to the Dark Soul. "Don´t worry guys, this isn´t over yet. Starlow, I have something you might be interested in," he went on, and, to her surprise, took out a 1-Up Deluxe. They were super rare, and it would be able to bring Dreambert back.

"But what about the hate?" she asked him, worried that Dreambert would have to suffer from it again.

"We´ll take care of that as soon as he wakes up again, come on now, Dark Nico won´t be stunned forever," he ordered her, and she nodded.

Light Nico gave Dreambert the mushroom, and he soon woke up again, just to wince from pain as he once again struggled with the hate. The Star Sprite was picked up by the good soul, and she and him focused their power on him. A pink and green beam came from them and hit Dreambert, which slowly weakened the hate. They could soon feel him actively fighting it back, and the hate was destroyed by both their effort and Dreambert himself. The Pi'illo looked exhausted, but seemed to be alright besides of that.

Starlow jumped down from Light Nico´s hand and ran over to him, hugging him after she reached him. He hugged her back, and Light Nico tossed out some Syrup to them.

"You´ll need those. Now come on, let´s get rid of that guy," he told them and turned around to face Dark Nico, who was getting up from the ground after he had recovered from the shock.

Starlow and Dreambert drank the liquid and were able to hover again. They then fired a love beam at Dark Nico, who got hit by it. Light Nico additionally threw spheres at him, and Mario, Luigi and Kamek went on with hitting him with everything they got as well. Dark Nico soon fainted and collapsed on the ground.

Everyone cheered, but suddenly, the scene froze and then disappeared, leaving only Starlow and Light Nico. She looked around in panic, but when she noticed how calm Light Nico was, she knew that there was something to it.

"What happened? Where are we?" she asked him.

"I don´t exactly know where we are, but I guess we are somewhere in your subconscious. I have freed you from a nightmare Sleep Nico had trapped you into," he explained.

"Wait…I think…I can remember…" she went on.

"Don´t worry, everything is alright now. If you excuse me, I´ll have to safe the other ones as well. I´ll give you a signal which will make you wake up, Sleep Nico has accidentally given me some Sleep Power. And with that, farewell," he said, and disappeared, leaving the Star Sprite alone in her now normal sleep.

Light Nico jumped out of Starlow´s body and hovered between her and Dreambert. Sleep Nico had now a projection of a castle in front of him.

"A castle with enough space for everything I need…has to look fancy as well…this might take a while," the dark soul mumbled.

Light Nico knew that he didn´t have all day, so he focused on Dreambert next and touched him. He again felt that he could link with him, and entered the Pi'illos nightmare.

Dreambert sat on the throne, injured. Why didn´t they notice anything? Dark Nico had taken over almost the whole population of Pi'illo Island, without anyone of them noticing a thing. It had all started like a normal day, but when he was finished with eating lunch, a guard ran towards him to tell him that there was a giant mob outside the castle, trying to get inside and dethrone the king.

He hustled over to the balcony on the front to see almost every Pi'illo in front of the castle, and as soon as they saw him, they threw bottles and bricks at him, which he narrowly dodged by ducking behind the railing. He heard footsteps behind him, and saw Nico running up to him.

"Dreambert, glad that you´re alright. I´ve brought Starlow up here as well, we´re trying to do something about this," he told him.

"What on earth made them do that?" he asked in disbelief.

"Someone spread rumours about you among the population, and now they all think that you are turning into a tyrant and want to stop that by dethroning you…even with brute force if they have to," he explained as another bottle flew past the human.

"Who could have…we have to find that out later. You and the guards first have to stop them. But please try to go easy on them," Dreambert begged him.

"Don´t worry, I´ll make sure that no civilian will be harmed," he replied, and created a sphere in his hand. With a grin, he threw it, and Dreambert passed out.

As he woke up, he heard Nico speak to the population, which was crowded in front of the throne. He told them about the defeat of tyranny before it even started, and offered them to lead them in the future, as no royalties were left. As he heard that, Dreambert quickly looked around. Starlow was nowhere to be seen.

"It´s a shame that Starlow tried to hold you off and was overrun, but I can understand you. In order to stop a tyrant, sometimes casualties are inevitable. May she rest in peace, as her husband will follow her soon," the human said.

Everyone cheered and applauded as Nico turned around and faced him. Dreambert could feel Dark Nico´s presence now, but it was too late. He created a red sphere, and held it up.

"For freedom," the human said, and threw the sphere…the nightmare began anew again.

As Nico ran up to Dreambert again, he brought Starlow with him.

"Guys? What is happening?" he asked the two of them.

"I threw these rumours among the people, I don´t know what came over me. Please forgive me, I´ll redeem myself by stopping them," Nico answered, and ran off again.

"Dark Nico. He had taken over without us noticing it, and used it to confuse the people down there. Light Nico has managed to turn the tides, however, because I felt something wrong with him as Light Nico was trying to overcome his counterpart again. I helped him, and he is now the same as before again. Don´t worry, everything will be fine again," she explained, and then hugged him because they narrowly escaped a situation that could have gotten them killed, given Dark Nico´s urge to destroy them.

After he let go, everything around him froze, and he suddenly found himself in nothingness. Light Nico was hovering in front of him.

"Phew, even in a dream, Dark Nico is way too powerful," the soul said.

"Light Nico? Where are we?" a confused Dreambert asked.

"In your subconscious, I´ve stopped the nightmare Sleep Nico had thrown you into," the soul explained.

"Wait…now that you say that, I think I remember what happened…is everyone else affected as well?" Dreambert wanted to know.

"I´ve already helped Starlow, I´ll proceed to do the same with the Mario Bros. now. Kamek seems to not be affected, so I´ll only have to wake him up. You´ll wake up on my signal, but I must go now, there is no time to lose," he replied, and disappeared.

Light Nico left Dreambert´s body, just to see Sleep Nico changing details on his projection. He wouldn´t be busy forever, so he quickly turned to Luigi and entered his dream.

Luigi was where King Boo wanted him to be. He was caught in a corner, nowhere to go. His friends were all trapped in frames as paintings, and he was the only one left. If he just hadn´t stopped by the mansion because he had a feeling telling him that there was something wrong. He would have been at the professor´s lab in time; time enough for him to grab the Poltergust and stop the Boo from trapping everyone in a painting.

He had started with E. Gadd after he somehow escaped from his prison, and then sealed the lab so Luigi couldn´t do anything. And now, he and his friends were in the mansion. One by one, his archenemy had sealed them in their prisons, until only Luigi was left. If only Nico had been there…

"Haha, and now you´ll see what it feels like to be trapped, plumber," the Boo said. They were in the living room, and Luigi couldn´t do anything…both because of fear and because of the lack of opportunities.

King Boo then took him and pressed him against an empty frame. Luigi soon felt himself growing weaker, and he ended up being unable to move. He could only see straight ahead, and realised that he was the painting now.

"I´d like to keep you as a trophy, but II will not take the risk of you coming back, so I´ll just get rid of you," King Boo went on, and his crown created a sphere which summoned a fire in the chimney.

"Your friends will make great trophies, however. I think I´ll hang them up here in the mansion," he added, while carrying Luigi´s painting to the fire. He threw it in laughing and hovered away, letting the painting burn…the nightmare started over again.

As King Boo was about to trap him, Light Nico suddenly dropped down the chimney and rolled out, sending King Boo flying across the room with a sphere. Luigi was surprised by the sudden help he received, and was even more surprised to see the Poltergust on Light Nico´s back.

"Looks like Santa isn´t the only one going down the chimney," Light Nico said while he chuckled, and tossed Luigi the device he carried. "You know how to use that better than I do. Souls have it a bit easier when trying to enter E. Gadd´s laboratory. Now show him who´s the real deal here," he went on.

Luigi nodded with a grin, and put the Poltergust on his back. He then faced King Boo, who saw what the green plumber had. He slowly backed off, but Light Nico didn´t allow him to escape. He dashed behind the Boo and kicked him towards Luigi, who reacted quickly and sucked him into the Poltergust. King Boo fought the machine, but it eventually defeated him.

"Thanks, Light Nico. If you wouldn´t have been here…" Luigi began, but then he realised that the mansion around him faded away. He and Light Nico were in nothingness.

"What happened? And…what is this place?" Luigi wanted to know, scared that something was going to happen.

"We have managed to defeat the nightmare of yours, which Sleep Nico had tossed you into. And now we´re in your subconscious," the soul explained.

"Hm…I remember…" Luigi began.

"Sure you do, but I´ll have to save your brother in time or it might be too late. See you soon," Light Nico cut him off, and disappeared.

He reappeared next to Luigi and saw Sleep Nico holding a projection of a map in front of him. The projections of a robot and a castle were hovering next to them.

"So…first Mushroom Kingdom, which should I take then? Maybe Beanbean Kingdom?" he asked himself, as he tried to figure out a plan that pleased him.

Light Nico quickly hovered over to Mario, knowing that Sleep Nico was about to finish his preparations. He entered Mario´s nightmare in order to get the last member of the group back into action.

It was early in the morning in Mushroom Kingdom. Mario just had breakfast with Luigi; as well as Starlow and Dreambert, who were there to visit them, when someone knocked at the door. He opened it just to find a Toad who told him that the princess had been kidnapped by Bowser again. Mario sighed in annoyance, as this was the third time in this week that Bowser had kidnapped the princess. And it was just the second day of the week, which meant that the Koopa King was about to score a new record…both for kidnapping Peach and being beaten up by the red plumber.

He delivered the news to the rest of the group, and they all set out to defeat Bowser again. Once they arrived at Bowser´s castle after crossing through the kingdom, they entered it and battled their way through his army, as well as the Koopalings. It all came down to a final battle between the heroes on one side and Bowser and his most useful lackey, Kamek, on the other one.

As the battle went on, Luigi happened to be hit by a spell from Kamek, which turned him into stone. Mario of course tried to undo the effect by defeating the Magikoopa, but he flew out of range, while Bowser kept Starlow and Dreambert busy with fireballs.

"Your highness, there is an opportunity for you over there," Kamek said to Bowser and pointed towards Luigi.

Bowser (surprisingly) understood what he meant, and performed a Slide Punch into the stone, breaking it. Everyone looked shocked as this happened, and Kamek used the time to shrink Mario with another spell. Bowser on the other hand roasted Starlow and Dreambert with fire, and as they fell on the ground, defeated, he turned towards the plumber in red. With an evil grin, he stomped closer, held his foot above him, and the last thing Mario saw was the foot closing in on him with rapid speed…the nightmare started over again.

As Luigi was about to be destroyed by Bowser, Light Nico crashed into the party all of a sudden. He ran through the door leading to the room they were fighting in, and managed to throw Bowser back with a sphere. He then proceeded to hit Kamek with one, taking him out of battle and thereby returning Luigi into his former self again. Mario quickly hugged his brother in relief, and they then looked at Light Nico.

"This is your battle, not mine. I´m just here to ensure that this ends well," the soul said, and the others understood. It was up to them to defeat Bowser.

After a long battle, Bowser finally fainted next to his lackey. Mario freed the princess, who was hanging in a cage above the battlefield, and she kissed him as a reward. As they all were about to leave the castle again, everyone except Light Nico and Mario froze. While the red plumber wondered about what had happened, everything around them disappeared, and they found themselves in nothingness.

"What happened? Where is everyone?" he asked Light Nico.

"Don´t worry about it, you managed to escape from the nightmare Sleep Nico had trapped you in. And since you were the last one to rescue, I´ll let everyone wake up now. We need to defeat Sleep Nico after all," the soul explained.

"I see, but how do you want to do anything about him? He is invulnerable," Mario wanted to know.

"That we will find out in a few moments. We´ll improvise, as always," Light Nico replied, and disappeared.

Light Nico emerged from Mario´s body, and found Sleep Nico to finish his plan. The dark soul let the projections hover in front of him, and Light Nico could feel that he prepared to create the castle and his army with the power the stone gave him. Light Nico sent out a pulse using the bit of power the Sleep Stone had given him, and as a reaction, his friends all woke up.

Sleep Nico felt the sudden pulse behind him and turned around, and was surprised to see Light Nico standing there with the other heroes. And they looked pretty angry, given that they had to live through their worst nightmares.

"Now, that´s what I call a surprise. What is this, a sleepover? I´ll make you suffer again if you want me to," he said while keeping his cool.

"Sorry that I had to end this party, but you know that I won´t stop until we defeat you again," Light Nico replied.

"So? I don´t care about anyone of you, because you´re no threat to me whatsoever," Sleep Nico said, and laughed.

"And what about me, you little wannabe-villain?" a familiar voice above them asked.

As everyone looked up, they were surprised to see the Zeekeeper circling above their heads. He landed next to the group, and Dreambert was the first one to speak up.

"Zeekeeper? What are you doing here?" Dreambert asked the new member of the party.

"I´m helping you, duh. I felt the power of the Sleep Stone, even in my Dream World. And when I noticed that all of my coins were gone, I swore myself to find the one who is behind all of this and punish him, so here I am, ready to deliver a package of feathered justice," the bird explained.

"Grr…you´re not going to make any difference, I have the combined power of the two stones together with my own, so get out of here you feathered, oversized, beefy chicken," Sleep Nico replied, confident as he always was. Nobody said a word, because they all knew that you better didn´t trigger the Zeekeeper by insulting him.

"How DARE you! I am the legendary Zeekeeper, protector of this island, friend of the Pi'illos, keeper of peace," he began.

"Uhm…could you stop boasting and show him who you are already?" Dreambert interrupted him.

"Ugh, fine…I am the being that has the power to overcome both the Dream Stone and the Dark Stone, and I´ll show you why you have made a bad choice by making me angry," the Zeekeeper went on, and flew up into the air again. He channelled his energy and prepared to fire his beam at him.

"Wake…BEAM" he shouted, and unleashed the beam onto Sleep Nico.

The dark soul cried in pain as the beam hit him, but it didn´t take long until he slowly managed to regain control over himself.

"Stay…OUT OF THIS" Sleep Nico shouted back, and created his own beam in his hands, which he sent against the Wakebeam. Sleep Nico pushed the Wakebeam back, but they stopped in the middle and didn´t move towards either of them.

Sleep Nico then summoned spheres around him and sent them towards the Zeekeeper, who got hit by them, stopping his Wakebeam and allowing the dark soul to hit the Zeekeeper with his beam. After a few seconds, he stopped the beam, and the Zeekeeper fell down to the ground, exhausted. He looked over at the other heroes.

"Ow…look, I don´t think that I can keep fighting, but I´ve removed his invulnerability with my attack, so you can take care of him. But be careful, that dude sure is dangerous," he told them, and fell asleep due to being tired.

The other ones looked at each other and nodded. This was the final battle. They were able to defeat their enemy, now that he wasn´t invulnerable anymore.

"Alright then, let´s do this," Light Nico commanded, and they all prepared for battle.

"Looks like this has gotten interesting again…let´s see how long you can last against me," Sleep Nico said.

Sleep Nico swept his right hand from left to right, and summoned a large number of red spheres above him, which flew towards the heroes. Kamek prepared himself and sent a wave of magic against the projectiles, destroying some of them. Starlow and Dreambert on the other hand created their own spheres, as well as Light Nico. They then sent them against the rest of the red ones, and destroyed them.

The dark soul then pointed into their direction, and they realized what he was doing this time. They changed position just before lightning bolts struck where they had been standing. He then sent a red shockwave towards them, and Kamek created a shield in front of the group.

The wave went right through the shield, and it would have hit them if it wouldn´t have been for Light Nico, who created a shield on his own. The shockwave crashed into it, almost destroying it in the process. The others could see Light Nico trembling a bit, but he pretended to be alright. He was one of their best chances to take his counterpart out, along with the love of the couple behind him. He couldn´t allow the others to see him getting tired because of the things he had done already, and the shockwave had been very powerful.

"Look, I have a world to conquer. So please do me a favour and get out of my sight," Sleep Nico told them, annoyed by their persistence.

"Never! You can´t defeat all of us, we will bring you down," Mario replied. All of a sudden, Sleep Nico disappeared, and they wondered where he had gone.

"The Sleep Stone has made me even powerful enough to allow me some teleportation over a short distance, though I can only use it again after a bit of cooldown. It does cost me some energy, I´ll admit," he suddenly said behind them, and they turned around to see him standing next to Kamek who, after turning his head in surprise as well, was hit by a light blue sphere, making him pass out. At the same time, he made a lightning bolt hit Starlow, which made her unable to move.

"These red spheres are consuming a big load of energy as well…well, at least they´re the deadliest," he said after Kamek fell on the ground.

H then flew into the air and channelled a black beam, and aimed it at Starlow. Mario and Luigi ran over to Kamek and gave him their last 1-Up Mushroom, while Light Nico tried to stop Sleep Nico with more spheres. The dark soul simply created a shield in front of him, and then fired a beam of pure hate at the Star Sprite.

Dreambert knew that the hate was going to destroy what he loved the most, but he didn´t know what to do. As the beam closed in, he hovered into line of fire in order to save Starlow. She wanted to object, but he took her in his arms and hugged her, knowing that she would try to stop him. He closed his eyes and waited for the impact.

Black smoke covered the area Starlow and Dreambert had been in, and they were unable to be seen. Light Nico assumed that the worst had happened, and knew that it was only a matter of time until they went down as well. They needed the combined power of everyone in order to stop Sleep Nico.

Everyone then suddenly heard Starlow coughing, and looked at their position again. Dreambert still had her in his arms, and he opened his eyes in surprise. They looked into the direction of Sleep Nico, and saw a big white shield made of love in front of them. It had almost given in to the hate, given that it had cracks all over it.

They were curious and tried to create another shield together, and managed to create a smaller one, which could cover the two of them. After everyone had adjusted to the fact that the two were alright, Light Nico used the opportunity to fly up to Sleep Nico. The dark soul just noticed him as he was in front of him, and Light Nico kicked him down to the ground.

Sleep Nico crash-landed on the ground, where he was hit by a love beam from Starlow and Dreambert. Mario and Luigi used a Star Rocket to attack him, while Kamek freed Starlow from the inability to move and also summoned two Thwomps above the soul, which landed on him after everyone had hit the soul with their attacks.

Everyone waited to see what would happen next. Light Nico could still feel his counterpart being awake, and as if on cue, the Thwomps exploded, revealing an angry soul. Sleep Nico started hovering again and charged himself, just to release two waves of blue spheres from him. Starlow and Dreambert used their newest ability and shielded themselves, while Kamek and Light Nico did the same. Mario and Luigi took cover behind Kamek.

The spheres either hit the shields or passed by the group, but after they had passed them, Sleep Nico commanded the spheres to return and change their position. Light Nico and the lovers felt the command and were able to shield themselves again in time, but the spheres hit the unsuspecting rest of the group, taking them out.

The remaining trio realised that they were in about the same position as they were the last time they had faced off with Dark Nico; only this time, he was way more powerful than before. Light Nico flew next to Starlow and Dreambert, and they knew that they needed more power in order to stop their opponent.

"It´s about time we ended this. Come on, friends!" Light Nico said to them, and they focused a love beam on him. Light Nico turned into Love Nico, and with all three of them being able to cast love, they had a high enough chance to win.

Love Nico summoned love spheres above him and threw them towards Sleep Nico, who in return shielded himself. As the spheres hit the shield, it started to grow weaker, and when Starlow and Dreambert fired a love beam at it, it broke and left the dark soul almost defenceless. Almost.

He took out his sword and activated it, and then blocked the beam with it. He created his own spheres and destroyed the ones from Love Nico, and then ran into their direction while blocking the beam. Love Nico stopped him by engaging him with his own sword, powered by love now. The two souls fought each other, but because Love Nico was now being hit by the love beam, he grew even stronger, a fact which Sleep Nico realised.

All of a sudden, he teleported away again. Starlow and Dreambert expected him to show up next to him, but he instead reappeared above Love Nico and hit him with his blade. Light Nico fell on his knees in surprise, and Sleep Nico was about to unleash a series of fatal blows on him, but Starlow and Dreambert redirected their beam onto him, which stunned him long enough for Love Nico to get back up and strike him with his own blade.

As Sleep Nico sank to the ground, Love Nico charged up his own beam and fired it at the soul. His counterpart got hit by the massive amount of love, and when they stopped the beams, they could see a next to unconscious Sleep Nico. What they also noticed was a faint, blue light glowing in the centre of the dark soul.

It grew brighter, and Love Nico realised what was happening. The Sleep Stone was in fact too strong for Dark Nico, in the long run at least. He had used all the energy he could afford, but now he couldn´t control the power inside him anymore, leaving it unstable. Which meant that the Sleep Stone was about to explode, and Love Nico didn´t even want to imagine what an explosion with the power of the Sleep Stone could do to Pi'illo Island.

"Starlow, Dreambert! The Sleep Stone is about to explode, but that explosion will wipe out the entire island if I am correct. We need a solution NOW!" he quickly told the other ones.

While the light on Sleep Nico grew brighter, they tried to find a way out of their situation. After a while, Starlow had an idea.

"I got it! Why don´t we put him into the Dream World?" she offered a solution.

"Hm…that could work, it shouldn´t affect the real world that much when he´s in there," Dreambert agreed after he thought about it.

"What do you mean by 'that much'?" Love Nico asked him.

"I don´t know how strong it will be, so it might have an effect on us here. But we must hurry now, we only have a small amount of time," he replied, while the light was glowing into all directions from the centre of the dark soul.

Dreambert turned into his pillow-form and dropped to the ground, while Starlow used her telekinetic powers to roll Luigi´s head onto Dreambert. As soon as his head was where it belonged, a Dream Portal opened above him.

Love Nico grabbed Sleep Nico and dragged him to the portal, and threw him into it. They then both rolled Luigi down from Dreambert again, closing the portal in the process. All they had to do was to wait now.

"So…how long do we have to wait?" Starlow asked.

Nobody had to answer, because right after she asked, the ground shook with a lot of intensity. After ten seconds, the earthquake was over.

"I guess that was your answer," Love Nico said after the shaking stopped. He then turned into Light Nico again, as he didn´t need the power anymore.

"So we only have two things to take care of. Remember how he had charged the Sleep Stone? I think that because it exploded, the souls are free again. We only have to let them out," Dreambert shared his thoughts.

"Alright then, but I think that we should bring back Kamek and Mario. Luigi should keep on sleeping, he´s the most useful that way right now," Light Nico replied.

"That reminds me…" Starlow said, and took out a 1-Up Mushroom."Dr. Toadley has given me that earlier today, and I just remembered that I had it. We could revive Kamek, who could bring the Mario Bros. back," she went on.

"Sounds good to me. Let´s do this," Dreambert agreed.

Starlow gave Kamek the 1-Up Mushroom, and he woke up again. After they explained to him what had happened, he revived Mario as well, whom they also explained what had happened to. The then moved Luigi´s head onto Dreambert, who turned into a pillow again, and opened the Dream Portal. Not long after it was opened, the souls of almost everyone flew out of it towards the castle, except for the ones of John and another one.

Everyone knew which soul was missing, and they would have to go into the Dream World in order to return it to its body. Mario, Starlow and Light Nico jumped into the portal, while Kamek stayed next to Luigi in order to watch over him. While he did that, he also tried to wake the Zeekeeper up, but it seemed that he was able to match Luigi when it came to sleeping. He figured that it would take him some time to wake that bird up.

* * *

 **Phew…that was exhausting and easily the most work I´ve ever put into a project. I spent several consecutive hours with writing most of this. So, December has been one hell of a busy month for me, which is why I haven´t uploaded anything these past weeks. I´ll try to finish this story today (yep…it´s the 24** **th** **of December and I´m still working on this), so I can also try and upload something additional to this…I am so going to overwork myself…**

 **So: hooray, the world is finally safe again! Now there is only one soul left they have to take care of, and then everyone will be able to participate in a special event…what, don´t you remember why Mario and Co. were on the island in the first place? Then go and read the whole story anew again!**

 **Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the last chapter!**

 **P.S: Yes, I gave Nico Reaper´s ultimate ability from Overwatch. No, I do not feel any shame, I just thought it was fitting…Nicbot had even used Phara´s ultimate ability. What? I like Overwatch…**


	15. The aftermath

**So we have reached the end now. I´m happy that you guys stayed with me on here for me to finish this story, and I had both fun and frustration with writing this story. It just isn´t easy to create something you (the author) and the readers like, but I´m giving my best. So now that we are here, enjoy the last chapter of this adventure that we have all gone through.**

* * *

Mario, Starlow and Light Nico dove out of the portal and landed in the Dream World. Well, 'landed' isn´t the correct description here, because the spawned above a gigantic crater, and they could only barely see the ground of it. Mario fell down, but Light Nico quickly went after him and caught the plumber. They all travelled to the bottom of the crater, where Dreambert and Dreamy Luigi appeared.

"So now that we´re here, we have to find him," the Pi'illo said once they were gathered together.

"Shouldn´t be hard to do. I can feel his presence, although it is almost non-existent," Light Nico replied.

He lead them through what was left of this part of the Dream World, and after some searching, they finally found their target. Dark Nico was lying on the ground, knocked out cold. What they hadn´t seen before was his body flickering every now and then.

"What is happening to him?" Starlow asked Light Nico.

"The explosion of the Sleep Stone combined with how much energy he used brought him to the edge of existence. If he takes any more damage, he´ll disintegrate into nothing, which means that he would die. If you see a soul flickering, you know that it is only barely alive," their friend explained.

"So we should be really careful while we bring him back to Nico´s body then," Dreambert concluded.

Light Nico picked his counterpart up, and they made their way back to where they had come from. As they were standing underneath the portal, they said their farewells to each other, and Starlow carried Mario, who hung at her feet, while Light Nico carried Dark Nico out of the Dream World into the portal again.

They landed in the real world again, where Kamek still tried to wake the Zeekeeper up. He stopped when he noticed them diving out of the portal, and Luigi woke up again while Dreambert returned to his original form again. Light Nico carried the other soul over to their host, and once Dark Nico was close enough to Nico, a blue glow appeared around both of them. Dark Nico turned into a blue light, which disappeared into the human´s body again.

"So…this is it, for now at least. Dark Nico will try to come back again, if he gets the chance to. Though I am not sure if he will give him another chance," Light Nico told the others, and looked at Nico. Starlow and Dreambert knew what he meant.

"We´ll look after him, but we can´t promise anything," Starlow replied.

"I know, it´s just…I feel like I am the one responsible for his current state. If it wasn´t for me, he wouldn´t even have to think about all of this. I´m doing what seems to be right, but it still appears to have a bad outcome for Nico" Light Nico said after a short break, and sighed. Starlow hadn´t ever seen or felt him being more hopeless than now.

"We´ll get him back on track, don´t worry. Besides, you have done what you had to do. I also feel like we can turn this around somehow, even though it could be hard to do," Dreambert said, and they felt a bit of hope inside their friend.

"Can´t stop you from trying, that´s for certain. I guess only time will tell what is going to happen next. I do know what you will do now, however. You are going to enjoy a wedding. And with that, farewell. We´ll meet again, that I can tell you," the soul answered, and returned to Nico´s body.

Kamek revived Nico, but after he opened his eyes and sat up, he began to sob again. Starlow hugged him in an attempt to comfort him, but he kept on sobbing. He didn´t decline her, though, as he hugged her back while doing so. Dreambert didn´t mind, as he knew that Starlow was trying to help him.

After Kamek (finally) managed to wake up the Zeekeeper, they prepared to return to the castle again. The guardian of Pi'illo Island flew ahead in order to tell the inhabitants the latest news on how everything had turned out. Mario and Co. on the other hand led Nico to the pipe in the cave, where John waited for them.

"There you guys are! So you´ve managed to capture him, huh? And what exactly happened? I feel like I blacked out for a moment after I saw some sort of flash," the Pi'illo greeted them as soon as he saw the group.

"That´ll take some time to explain. As for Nico…it´d be best not to speak about this for now, and we should all call him our friend, not a prisoner," Dreambert said.

"Of course, my prince. Shall we head to the castle now?" John replied.

"Yes, I´m glad that this whole mess is finally over," Starlow, who was a bit tired, said.

They all gathered on the pipe and warped into the castle, where the Pi'illos were already waiting for their arrival. While everyone cheered, Nico felt something he hadn´t felt in a long time: fear. He was afraid of the entire population of Pi'illo Island, due to what he had done to every single one of them.

One of the Pi'illos eventually spotted Nico in the group, and as he called him out, everyone in the room started shouting and demanding to have him locked away. Nico felt even more awful, and once he couldn´t take anymore, he passed out again. It was just too much for him.

The heroes were concerned about his wellbeing, and Dreambert had a hard time calming the citizens down. Once he assured them that Nico wouldn´t be a threat for a longer time and that they would look after him, they stopped. Starlow, Dreambert and Kamek still guarded Nico while Mario and Luigi were carrying him into the infirmary, as they couldn´t be sure that nobody wanted to execute their own justice.

"Does he have severe injuries? Thankfully he doesn´t. Is he still in a terrible condition? I´m afraid that he is. Will he need you guys the most now? I think he does," Dr. Toadley said after he had checked on their friend.

"Will he be okay again?" Starlow wanted to know.

"Can I answer this question? Sadly I can´t. Should you focus on the wedding for now? Indeed you should," the doctor replied.

One hour later, everyone was gathered in the Throne Room. Dreambert wore a tuxedo, while Starlow wore a white veil. They knew that they were going to be happy together for a very long time, but Nico´s state damped their happiness.

Just as the Pi'illo priest asked them if they wanted to live together for as long as they live, stomping could be heard. Mario, Luigi, Starlow, Kamek and Peach knew that stomping very well.

 _Not that guy. Not now_ , Starlow thought and became very annoyed when Bowser stomped into the room.

"Excuse me, can´t you see that we´re having a wedding now? What do you even want?" she shouted at him.

"I won´t hinder you on marrying, I just wanted to take the princess with me before I leave this island," Bowser replied with a grin. Mario, Luigi and Kamek left the crowd and met Bowser in the centre of the room.

"Don´t be bothered by us, we´re just going to explain to him why he can´t kidnap Peach," Mario said to Starlow and Dreambert. He and Luigi took their hammers out, now that Luigi had replaced his hammer, and Kamek prepared for battle as well.

"That´ll be some awesome pictures of your wedding!" Kyle Koopa shouted, and got her camera ready. She was supposed to take picture of the wedding, but it seemed that there was going to be more on the pictures than intended.

 **Three days later**

Starlow and Dreambert looked through the pictures again. On each of them was a scene from the fight with Bowser, with Starlow and Dreambert going through the wedding´s procedure in the background. In the end they were seen cheering once Bowser had been defeated for good by the three fighters.

The last picture showed all of them on top of the defeated Koopa King, Starlow and Dreambert sharing a kiss, with the population of the island celebrating both Bowser´s defeat and the wedding itself. Bowser had been sent home again, while Kamek decided that he would live in Toad Town for now. Most of the guests were leaving or already left.

The only thing that bothered them now was Nico. He had left the infirmary again one day after the wedding, but he stayed in his room for the entire day. The guards only reported him going out on the balcony at night to gaze at the stars. They even had to bring food to his room, and he only opened the door far enough for the plate to fit through. Nobody was able to really interact with him.

He didn´t even talk with Starlow. No matter what she tried, he kept the door to his room shut. Dreambert kept telling her to give him time, but she feared that it could get even worse. This night, when she was on the southern balcony looking at the kingdom that was now also hers, she noticed something. It was a human-looking figure walking away from the castle.

She knew that there weren´t many humans on this island, but she had to make sure that that wasn´t Mario or Luigi. She hurried over to Nico´s room, and found the door to be slightly open. She knocked, and when there was no reaction, she entered it. It was empty, and when she looked around, she saw a note lying on his desk, next to a lit candle. She hovered up to it and read it.

 _Dear friends, I know that you are trying to be there for me, but I just can´t take it anymore. The way everyone else looks at me…it makes me feel sick, and afraid of them. And as much as I like you, I just can´t forgive myself for what I´ve done not only to you, but everyone else as well. Who can promise me that something like this doesn´t happen again? I would hurt you again. I would do…all these cruel things again. I don´t want to risk hurting anyone anymore, except for myself now. I want this to be over, and this is why I am ending this. I wish it didn´t have to end this way, but I just can´t keep going anymore. Not like this. You will find my corpse at Driftwood Shore, it is up to you what to do with it. Your friend, Nico._

Starlow now knew that it had been Nico who snuck away from the castle, and she knew exactly where he was headed. And if they wouldn´t find him in time, he´d be…dead. She hurried over to the room she shared with Dreambert, and shook him until he woke up.

"What´s the matter, Starlow? It´s like…I don´t know how late?" a sleepy Dreambert asked.

"Nico is trying to end himself at Driftwood Shore!" she shouted at him in panic.

"As I´ve already told you, give him time," he mumbled and turned over. After a few seconds, he abruptly sat up. "WHAT did you just say?" he asked her once he realised what she had been saying.

"Come! We don´t have much time to save him, I´ve seen him heading away from the castle. Go get Kamek, I´ll wake the Mario Bros.," she said to him, and hustled out of the room again.

She reached Mario and Luigi´s room and stormed in, letting her star flicker, calling their names and shaking them in order to wake them up. None of them reacted to her, though.

"Mario! Luigi! Breakfast is ready!" she shouted at them.

"Oh, time already?" Mario asked as he instantly woke up.

"No, but you need to come with us this instant. Nico is trying to end his life at the beach!" she explained to him, effectively alarming him.

He jumped out of his bed and dragged Luigi with him, who still kept sleeping. They met with Kamek and Dreambert, and hurried out of the castle. It didn´t take long for them to reach Driftwood Shore. Once they arrived there, they started looking for Nico. They eventually spotted him next to the Dreampoint they had fought the Elite Trio in.

He just walked into the water and dove down. They ran over to the position they had seen him at, and it didn´t take long until his body reappeared on the surface of the water. Mario and Starlow managed to bring him back on land, and the red plumber then tried to make Nico throw up the water. After a few seconds, he spat it up and gasped for air.

Everyone was relieved to see him being alive, though as he saw them, he just lowered his head. Kamek used his magic to create a blanket, and they wrapped him into it. Mario also brought some water in his hands and let it drop onto Luigi, who finally woke up as well.

After they had explained to him what had happened, they brought Nico back to the castle, with Starlow sitting on his shoulder and snuggling to his head. She had to give him the feeling that he was still wanted, and comforting him was something she saw as necessary for now.

The next night, there was no sign of anything. It just seemed to be a regular night, which made Starlow slightly happier. If they just could safe Nico, she thought, everything would be okay again.

The next day, Nico was gone without a trace. He had left a new note, and Starlow got ready to gather another rescue-party, when she read what Nico wrote this time.

 _Dear friends, I´ve thought about this. You obviously don´t want me to die, and to be honest: I don´t want to die, either. I just saw it as the best way to take away the risk of me hurting you. I still don´t want to hurt you, so I´ve figured something out that should fulfil both desires. I am going to live in an isolated part of Somnom Woods from now on. Don´t worry, I´ll be fine there. If you really want me back, then wait for one year. If you still want me back then, follow the instructions underneath this letter. If you truly see me as your friend, we might meet again. If not…farewell. Nico._

Starlow sat down on the bed. She had to think about all of that. He wasn´t going to end his life, but living one year without having contact to anyone? She wasn´t certain, but she suspected that he could go crazy during this time. She told everyone else about it, and they all agreed to go and look for him after one year passed. They were going to get their friend back, no matter what.

Under a big tree in Somnom Woods, a figure sat down to come to rest. So this was going to be his home for at least a year. He knew how to survive in a wild forest, and he had read about some magic runes in this section of Somnom Woods. He´d use them on their hunt for him, once one year was up. If they wanted him back, they´d have to earn him. Nico got up again and started looking for branches in order for him to build himself a new home.

On Mt. Pajamaja, something was lying in a pile of snow. It wasn´t a living being, but it wasn´t dead either. It was just recovering. A faint whirring could be heard inside of it. Its look resembled the one of a human, but it wasn´t one. It was a robot, constructed for one task. Nicbot was in recovery mode again. For how long, nobody knew. But it wouldn´t be forever, just like his master wouldn´t need forever to recover from the final battle and the explosion of the Sleep Stone.

* * *

 **Finally. The story is over, and you can very well see that I´m planning on doing another part of this. I don´t know when, but it might take some time. I have a basic idea, but I´ll need to optimize it here and there.** **I plan on uploading something else today though, as a sort of Christmas story taking place in this…Mario and Luigi AU? I don´t know…**

 **Well then, looks like this has turned quite dark here. It seems like Nico won´t be seen again anytime soon, at least not for our heroes. And yes, Nicbot isn´t done for. I feel like he is the Fawful from Superstar Saga, the underling of the main antagonist, but the one everyone wants back. Can´t complain here, I like him too (I mean…I created him as a character, why wouldn´t I?).**

 **Again, thank you for reading this story. Don´t forget to share your thoughts about this, and with that, I need to thank all of the guests for reviewing, especially the one who joined in on my first part of the story and stuck with it ´til the end of this one. I also need to thank everyone else, like Damariobros and GamehunterMC for reading and reviewing. Oh, Damariobros: sorry that I didn´t pick your second idea (you know, the one with the feather), but I just didn´t feel like adding it in.**

 **Well then, see you, guys! Review if you want to, and stay tuned for my next story!**

 **P.S: I intended to upload this two days ago, but FanFiction had internal problems...great...**


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